rough cost of health insurance for residency

Kelvin1960 wrote on Fri Mar 2, 2018 6:54pm:

Someone else asked this yesterday. Here is my response ...

My wife and I (60 and 58) arranged a healthcare policy 2 weeks ago.

 

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Our joint policy costs 1400 Euros for the first year, and will increase by about 10% per year for 3 years. 

We could have paid (I think about ) 20% more and had lower co-pay charges.

But as we are (touch-wood) both pretty healthy at the moment, the co-pay charges didn't look to be too much of an issue, and they top out at 600 Euros in any one year.

We are both non-smokers.

Hope this gives you a ball park figure.

Pre-existing conditions are excluded, but that was't an issue for us.

Re prescriptions .. these costs are co-pay. My wife has a couple of repeat prescriptions, but these are available over-the-counter, and they are not expensive, so not worth bothering the co-pay process with. The pharmacist just needs to see the sticky label on the UK prescription to authenticate it. Of course, if you need some special, rare prescription, that could be a different matter.

Val60 wrote on Thu Oct 22, 2020 2:52pm:

Hi was this for residency please what company did you use thanks 

Kelvin1960 wrote on Thu Oct 22, 2020 3:06pm:

We used DKV.

I noticed that you are replying to an old post ... so I have better information now.

 

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Firstly, we have copay on our policy. Copay is no longer acceptable for Residency. A non-copay insurance policy is a bit more expensive. At age 60, you would expect to pay around 1050 Euros each per year for DKV.

Secondly .. it's not just about cost or about applying for Residency. When you gain Residency, your PHI will, at least for a while, become your only source of healthcare. So accessibility and quality are the important factors.

My wife became seriously ill last year, and DKV have been absolutely fantastic. 

BUT we have had to travel to obtain treatment and tests, mostly to the Quiron Hospital in Murcia. We have also used (I think) 8 other medical facilities in Murcia, Elche and Torrevieja. 

This seems to be quite normal. We have met numerous other people "doing the rounds" - each having different insurers.

Into the detail .... insurers may quote the various clinics and hospitals that they use, but in reality, they pick and choose exactly what services they contract for at which hospital. So if your insurer's brochure says that they use (say) Quiron or IMED hospitals/clinics, the city you have to go to depends on the medical service you need.   

We use a GP in our village (not the health centre) and she acts as the gateway into the DKV system - and she is very good at it. 

Our local GP works with DKV (which may be why our local insurance broker recommended DKV). So it seems that the most important thing is to have an insurer who works with your local GP.

We have a neighbour who uses a different insurer. Her nearest insurer-affiliated GP is 50 minutes away by car.