Costa Blanca
1,600 British early retirees lose their health cover in the Valencia region
By h.b. - Jun 25, 2008 - 7:32 AM
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Spanish newspaper El País has picked up on the policy change from the regional health service in Valencia which means that thousands of pre-retirement foreign residents in the region will no longer be able to obtain free health care.
Until now the Valencian public health service had an open-door policy for the hundreds of pre-retirement British residents in the region who were thus attended to in the region under a category of ‘extensión o demada’.
The Generalitat regional government said that some 3,000 foreigners have been benefitting from the arrangement, 1,600 of them British residents, and that it explained a high number of operations for problems such as cataracts, angina or other heart problems. The costs of these treatments was being met by the regional health service in Valencia which has said ‘no more’.
Pensioners are not affected as the Valencia health service can claim back the cost of their treatment from the British Government, and tourists also have no problems as the E-111 card covers their needs in Spain for as long as a year.
However those who retire early to the Costa Blanca are not covered unless that retirement has been forced by an accident or illness.
Now such British early retirees are obliged to take out private health insurance. The change in practice in Valencia was supported by both the Partido Popular and the Socialists in a move to better control access to health resources.
The move could well be followed by other regional health services in Spain.
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