Health Care In Tenerife
The Spanish Health Service is considered to be better than the UK, whether you pay privately or are entitled to free care under the Spanish National Health Service, but registering at the local Centro de Salud (Health Centre) is one area of relocating that can often get overlooked.
Once you are employed or self employed and paying social security, you and your dependents living with you will be entitled to health care under the Spanish National Health System.
This is another area where having the services of a Gestor at your disposal gets the job done properly, so there are no nasty surprises when you or your family need treatment.
Living Together
If you are an unmarried couple, living together (no children), where only one of you is working and paying social security, your partner will not be entitled to health care under the Spanish system for 12 months, so you must make other arrangements. If you are an unmarried couple with children, your dependents including your partner will be entitled to free Spanish health care.
Pensioners
If you are a pensioner and receive a UK pension you will be entitled to free health care and free prescriptions, but you must first inform the Department of Work and Pensions in the UK, who will issue you with Form E121.
Once you have registered your existence in Tenerife and obtained paperwork for NIE, Empadronamiento, Certificado de Registro, Social Security Number, go along to the Centro de Salud with all your paperwork, plus your passport and E121. They will keep one copy of your E121 and send a copy back to the UK. In the meantime if you need treatment, take your stamped copy of the E121.
Further information about Medical Cards, Emergency Treatment & Hospitals, British Doctors, Dentists and Opticians can be found here.