How to Ap­ply for a European Health Insurance Card in Spain

The “Tar­jeta San­it­aria Europea” is the Span­ish equi­val­ent of the European Health In­sur­ance Card

If you are res­id­ent in Spain, have a Span­ish so­cial se­cur­ity num­ber and you are act­ively pay­ing your con­tri­bu­tions into the Span­ish So­cial Se­cur­ity sys­tem, you should ap­ply for the Span­ish equi­val­ent of the European Health In­sur­ance Card (EHIC) which is the Tar­jeta San­it­ario Europea (TSE).

If you are trav­el­ling back to the UK, or to any other European coun­try, on hol­i­day, on busi­ness or to visit fam­ily and friends and re­quire med­ical as­sist­ance, present­a­tion of this will en­title you to re­ceive med­ical as­sist­ance, free of charge.

You can ap­ply for the card on­line

(go into ac­cess the ser­vice and com­plete the de­tails , or al­tern­at­ively visit your nearest so­cial se­cur­ity of­fice, present­ing your Span­ish Tar­jeta San­it­aria (SIP card) and pass­port and they should is­sue you a Tar­jeta San­it­aria Europea.)

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Be­ing a Brit­ish pass­port holder no longer en­titles you to free health­care in the UK. Fail­ure to present your European Health In­sur­ance Card may res­ult in you re­ceiv­ing a bill for any med­ical treat­ment re­ceived.

BUT PLEASE NOTE: UK Pen­sion­ers liv­ing in Spain, in re­ceipt of a UK pen­sion, need not ap­ply for the Span­ish Tar­jeta San­it­aria Europea. As quoted by the Brit­ish Em­bassy “Since 1st May 2010, the UK is re­spons­ible for is­su­ing the EHIC to UK pen­sion­ers res­id­ent in other EU coun­tries.” Ir­ish pen­sion­ers will need to check with the Ir­ish Em­bassy.

European Health In­sur­ance Cards (EHIC) are is­sued by The Pen­sion Ser­vice in New­castle upon Tyne to all UK ex­pats in re­ceipt of a UK pen­sion.

You can request an application form sending out for you and your dependants by calling the International Pension Centre (IPC) on +44 191 218 7777.

There is, however, an ex­cep­tion to this:

If you are in re­ceipt of a UK pen­sion and are act­ively work­ing in Spain (ie. con­trib­ut­ing into the Span­ish So­cial Se­cur­ity sys­tem), you will need to ap­ply for the Tar­jeta San­it­aria Europea.

IM­PORT­ANT : When or­der­ing this card on­line, if the ad­dress you enter on the ap­plic­a­tion link for the Tar­jeta San­it­aria Europea (TSE) is not the same as the ad­dress you have re­gistered with So­cial Se­cur­ity then your ap­plic­a­tion will not be processed.

Please be ad­vised that en­ter­ing an old ad­dress will res­ult in the Tar­jeta San­it­aria Europea (TSE) be­ing pos­ted to that old ad­dress.

If your details are accurate with the Span­ish so­cial se­cur­ity of­fice, it is generally quicker to go on­line for the Ta­jeta San­it­aria Europea (TSE) as some of­fices re­quire pre booked appointments.