HolaRetire · Free planning tools for retiring to Spain
Four ways to be covered, and the free one that nobody sells you.
This decides more than anything else on this page.
The older of you, if you are a couple. The public subscription fee changes at sixty-five.
Start here: The S1 — your home country pays. It is the one route here that nobody has a reason to tell you about, and for a state pensioner it is usually the difference between paying for healthcare in Spain for the rest of your life and not.
A certificate from the country paying your state pension. Registered in Spain, it puts you in the public system on the same terms as a Spanish pensioner, including prescriptions at pensioner rates, and it costs nothing.
Request it from your national pension or health authority up to a few months before you move, then register it with the Spanish social security office once you arrive and take their document to your local health centre.
No cost to you
Full cover with an insurer authorised in Spain: no co-payments, no deductible, no waiting periods, no annual cap, valid for a year. It is a condition of the residence visa, not an optional extra, and the wrong policy is a refused application.
Get quotes from insurers who deal with residence applications daily and ask each one in writing for a certificate stating the policy meets the requirements. Do it before the consulate appointment, not after.
A market price, not a set one
What most foreign residents end up with alongside public cover: shorter waits, an English, German or French-speaking doctor, and a hospital you chose. Priced by age, and it rises steeply after seventy.
Compare on what is excluded rather than on the monthly price: pre-existing conditions, waiting periods, the hospital list near where you are actually going to live, and what happens to the premium at eighty.
A market price, not a set one
You have a better route already, so this is the safety net you will not need. It stays open if your circumstances change.
You told us you are not planning to work in Spain, so this route is not in play.
Your personal step-by-step plan for retiring to Spain, built around this result.
Free · takes about three minutes
Four routes exist and most people only ever hear about the one somebody sells. The first question on this page is the S1, because a British or EU state pensioner can have their Spanish public healthcare paid for by the country they are leaving — for life, for nothing, on a form — and an insurance broker has no reason at all to mention it.
Independently listed, experienced with international retirees, free to contact.
Official Sanitas Exclusive Agent in Spain — English‑speaking, visa‑compliant health insurance
Region of Murcia
View profile →Independent, English-speaking insurance broker on the Costa Blanca — local advice for health, home, motor and more.
Costa Blanca
View profile →Private health insurance plans for foreign residents in Spain, including visa‑compliant cover and instant visa certificate options.
Madrid
View profile →Figures verified on 19 August 2026.
Based on 2013 and 2025 figures where a newer official figure has not been published.
This is an estimate to help you plan, not advice. Your own position depends on where in Spain you live and on details no calculator sees — check anything that matters with a professional.