The regulation of health care to foreigners in Spain is collected in the Organic Law on Rights and Freedoms of Foreigners in Spain and their social integration. According to said law “Foreigners have the right to health care in the terms provided in current legislation in health matters”.
In order to homogenize access to health in Spain for foreigners who are in an irregular situation, The Ministry of Health has given guidelines to the Autonomous Communities with the procedure to follow so that they can receive health care charged to the SNS (National Health System).
Procedure for unregistered or authorized foreigners as residents
The procedure applies to any foreign person who, residing in Spanish territory, It is not registered or authorized as a resident in Spain, And it consists of the following steps:
1. Preparation and Documentation Presentation
First of all, The request for access to attendance with public funds must be submitted. This request will be submitted in the administration area of the health centers or other agencies for this purpose according to each autonomous community.
This application must be submitted directly by the interested person, and must be accompanied by the following documentation:
a) Documentation accrediting the identity of the requesting person:
- For community citizens, National Identity Document issued by the Administration of the country of origin, or passport.
- If the applicant did not have any document that proves his identity, The “undocumented registration card” will be taken as valid, whose issuance is the competence of the General Directorate of Police of the Ministry of Interior.
Have an identity document of the requesting person, It is an indispensable requirement to be able to register it in the database. Without this accreditation, Health assistance will be provided, but it cannot be registered in the system.
b) Documentation proving residence in the Spanish territory with 3 months in advance:
- Registration steering wheel or a certificate of the Autonomous Community where health care is required three months in advance. In this time, Previous registration can also be computed in any other Spanish municipality. If the residence could not be credited through these documents, This accreditation can be collected through other official documents such as registrations in schools, Documents issued by some NGOs, travel letters that come from the consulate ...
c) Accreditation of not being able to export to Spain the right to health care from their country of origin.
d) Accreditation of there are no third parties obliged to payment.
2. Validation of the documentation provided
After submitting the application and documentation, INGESA professionals (National Institute of Health Management), They will proceed to validate it. If no document will be missing and the data were correctly completed, The corresponding Telematics or paper file will open. If such documentation were incorrect or insufficient, The application will not be validated, and professionals will ask the plaintiff to correction of the additional data or documents to be able to process it.
3. High proposal
Once the documentation has been valid, The interested party will be provisionally registered in the Population Information System of the corresponding Autonomous Community, or in the Ingesa. This registry will occur through the usual procedures that follow with the population as a whole.
4. Application assessment
a) Verify that the documentation submitted and the data recorded by the INGSA for the proposal of discharge in the Protected Population Database of the National Health System are correct.
b) Discard health coverage for any other title or third parties obliged to pay.
c) Rule out that the interested party is previously figured in the INSS or SNS databases with sanitary coverage.
d) Check that, In the case of being a person already registered in the BDSNS, The proposal does not imply relevant changes in previous existing data.
Once the maximum resolution of requests has elapsed (6 months), Two situations may occur. In the event that the application is values as positive, The applicant will be issued the health card. If the application did not meet the established requirements, The interested party of the population information system of the corresponding Autonomous Community will be dismissed and discharged, and the person will be offered to signing to the special agreement.
5. High in the SNS database
After the favorable valuation of the application, The plaintiff will be registered in the Database of Autonomic Protected Population and in the SNS, through the usual procedure and within the maximum period of 6 months from the submission of the application.
6. Health card expedition
The Autonomic or Ingesa Health Administration that registers the person in their protected population database will issue the corresponding health card, which must be renewed every two years to maintain the information about the situation of the updated plaintiff.
In all cases, a monitoring and use control will be carried out to certify that irregularities are not being committed in the use of the Spanish health system.
