Hi All,

I am tryiing to decide about health insurance prior to a family move to northern costa blanca next summer.  Does anyone have any recommendations about providers or levels of cover, or specific hospitals or doctors in the Javea/Jalon area?  I have 2 young daughters and want to feel I can get them seen quickly if need be, and that if any of us are ill we can get advice in English rather than our currently inadequate Spanish, which is the main reason for the private route I guess, although we will be contributing to social security etc, and I have heard good things about the Spanish NHS equivalent.  I currently have cover provided through work by Standard Life who will not cover us in Spain, and I have been investigating a little on line - some British companies like Bupa and Exeter have relevant policies but I am wondering if a Spanish company would offer better value… would really welcome any shared experiences,

thanks everyone,

Sanitas is the largest private health ensurer, Mapfre is also a good one, more cost effective, Asisa is a less known one even more cost effective. Unfortunately i’m unable to help with whether they have English speaking professionals.

Thanks very much RG that’s definitely given me somewhere to start looking from!

cheers,

Whilst the choice is obviously up to you if you have access to Spanish National Health why not use it? It is as geared up to speaking English as the private sector and in many cases you will see exactly the same doctor anyway!

It works the same as England in that some doctors work for private hospitals and the national health - I had ASSSA private health cover (the girl in their office spoke perfect English) I had a small op last year and had to drag over to a private hospital in Alicante.

A neighbour of mine is having the same op with the same doctor BUT under the national health in the brand new Torrevieja hospital (just down the road) which is one of most modern in Europe.

Things are different here - you wont wait months to get treatment under National Health so why pay for private - but as I said the choice is yours.

We have many clients who have had to use Nat health and have nothing but praise for the services received.

I have now cancelled my ASSSA cover as I failed to see the benefits over Nat Health and have saved 600? p.a.

The Exeter Friendly provide a very good health product with a whole range of benefits.  Also, unlike most of the spanish providers they are very cheap for dependent children up to the age of 21 (EUR 23 per month!!).  Most other companies charge just as much for a child as they do an adult.  It is an ALL English speaking service and you are not tied to any hospital/clinic i.e. you are free to choose where and when you go as they have contracts in place with 99% of them up and down the Spanish coast.  The company is based in the UK but there are plenty of insurance agents up and down the coast who have access to the product.

If you want anymore info, just let me know!!!

Why don’t you check HealthCare International up?

http://www.healthcareinternational.com[/u