Keep Your US Health Insurance When Moving to Spain?

Overview

Keep US Insurance, or Arrange Spanish Cover?

People moving from the United States to Spain often ask whether they should keep their US health insurance. It is a fair question, but the more useful way to frame it is about healthcare access: how will you actually get care once you live in Spain? The sections below set out how US plans and Medicare behave here, the keep-versus-cancel points worth weighing, and the Spanish cover options.

Questions about keeping or changing US benefits should be checked with Medicare or the Social Security Administration. Spanish immigration authorities decide whether you qualify for a residence route, while Sanitas decides whether it can offer cover and on what terms.

We are English-speaking Sanitas specialists. We help with the Spanish side of this and give no advice on your US benefits — for the US-side decision, check the official US sources and, if needed, a US adviser.

Medicare

Medicare and Living in Spain (Healthcare in Spain)

US Medicare generally does not pay for healthcare received outside the United States, so it does not cover routine care in Spain. Whether to keep paying for Part B, and how Advantage or Medigap behave abroad, is a US decision with its own rules and potential late-enrolment consequences — that is for you to check with Medicare and the Social Security Administration, not something we advise on. What matters on the Spanish side is simple: Medicare will not be your healthcare in Spain, so you will need cover here.

Visa

If You Are Moving on a Visa

If your move is on a visa, the Spanish plan is usually the piece the route requires. Routes differ: the NLV commonly expects private cover; the DNV has a Social-Security route as well. A US plan or Medicare generally will not meet a Spanish route’s healthcare requirement. We help you arrange a suitable Spanish plan; the visa decision itself rests with the Spanish authorities. See private insurance or Social Security.

Retirees

American Retirees

This question often comes from retirees, for example those on the Non-Lucrative Visa. The position is the same either way: Medicare and US plans do not cover routine care in Spain, so a Spanish plan is needed here, while any US cover is kept only for time back home. Age and contracting rules matter when choosing the Spanish plan — see Residents Platinum for Americans and cover over 60. We help retired couples arrange this realistically.

What we can help with

What we can arrange

We arrange suitable Spanish cover in English, match it to your visa route where that applies, and set out plainly how it sits alongside anything you keep in the USA, without advising on your US benefits. You’ll get a personalised quote rather than a fixed price. Get a quote or contact us.