Advice

Hi Roger,

Yes, you will lose access to the NHS, because it is a residency-based health service and you will be resident in Spain. 

Healthcare options in Spain depend on your age: if you're in receipt of UK State Pension, you can apply to NHS Business Services Authority in Newcastle for an S1 to transfer your healthcare entitlement to Spain.  If you're not State Pension age yet, you'll need private health insurance, paid in full for the first year, in support of your residency application.  After the first year in Spain, you can either continue with the PHI, or apply to join the Convenio Especial, which costs Eu 60 per person, per month.  The advantage of the Convenio Especial over PHI, is that the former doesn't exclude pre-existing conditions.  With both the C.E. and PHI, prescription costs are not included.

Kind regards,

Kim

If you are receiving the UK pension and in receipt of the S1 healthcare you can still access the UK NHS. If you visit the UK you will need to take your S1 paperwork with you.

Steve

Assuming you acquire residence prior to Dec. 31st. then both answers given are correct although that said unfortunately Kimmie's first paragraph is wrong in its entirety. 

While it's true that the NHS is a residential based system for those with an S1 that's not the governing factor. Holding an S1 means that for health care purposes UK is your so called 'competent state' (EU speak for responsible body) and pays for you and that applies throughout the community.

Which answer applies in any particular case then depends on whether you are in receipt of a UK pension or other qualifying exportable benefit and therefore entitled to an S1. 

Essentially if you are then you remain entitled to NHS care in UK just the same as any other person still living there. You also retain entitlement to an EHIC which you can use to access necessary health care when visiting other EU and EEA countries. 

Move after Dec. 31st. though and you forefeit your right both to an S1 and an EHIC, in all cases however if you subsequently return to the UK to resume residency then you become entitled to NHS cars from day one as if you'd never left.

Quite what the position would be if you moved after Dec. 31st. - so with private insurance or health care provided with employment in Spain - I'm not sure, anyone facing that scenario will have to do their own research I'm afraid! 

Anyway, from the official government website:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/healthcare-in-spain-including-the-balearic-and-canary-islands#s1

UK-funded healthcare: using an S1 form in Spain

If you’re living in Spain before the end of 2020, your rights to access rights to access healthcare will stay the same from 1 January 2021 if you’re either:

• receiving a UK State Pension
• receiving another ‘exportable benefit’
• a frontier worker (someone who works in one state and lives in another)

This means that you’ll get:

• continued access to healthcare in Spain using your UK-issued S1 form
• a UK-issued EHIC for travel
• planned treatments in other EU countries via the S2 route
• access to the NHS in England, Scotland and Wales when you’re visiting the UK

Thank you, Ray.  As I said, the NHS system is residence-based, so if you are a Spanish resident, you no longer have access to GP services or hospital treatment, other than for emergency care on trips back to the UK, exactly as a UK resident would not be entitled to anything other than emergency treatment when visiting Spain.

Bizarre that Movingon says my first paragraph is "wrong in its entirety", yet agrees that the NHS is a residence-based system! 🤣

"Bizarre that Movingon says my first paragraph is "wrong in its entirety", yet agrees that the NHS is a residence-based system"

Only when you selectively quote me, what I said was:

While it's true that the NHS is a residential based system for those with an S1 that's not the governing factor.

Roger, in respect of NHS services,      

Taken from the NHS website...                                                          

The NHS operates a residence-based healthcare system.

Most NHS services are free to people who are ordinarily resident in the UK and are not dependent on nationality, payment of UK taxes, National Insurance (NI) contributions, being registered with a GP, having an NHS Number or owning property in the UK.

Ordinarily resident means living in the UK on a lawful and properly settled basis for the time being, and you'll be asked to prove this.

If you're a citizen of the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, you can become ordinarily resident when you move to England, as long as you meet the criteria

LeckyLes