Health insurance for a remote worker/tourist visa

@gdikel

ASSSA

We are insurance brokers if you want we can give you differents company budgets, we work with the best companies in the market as Sanitas, DKV, Aegon, Adeslaa, etc. Don't hesitate to contacto us.

@gdikel

Welcome to the expat.com forum and enjoy your trip to Spain!

For short visits, most tourists get a standard travel insurance. There are loads of these available online... and you'd usually purchase one in the US before leaving on your trip. They are usually relatively inexpensive, and typically have cover for a maximum trip length of x days (where x might be 30, 45, 60, or 90 depending on the policy/provider/cost). So you need to match the policy with your desired trip duration.

If you're a full-time digital nomad / remote worker, then you can typically go stay in most countries visa-free for up to 90 days. And you can obtain annual travel insurance policies (again, check on the max trip length) with various riders (extreme sports, snow sports, diving, etc.) depending on what you do when you're not on the laptop.

If you want a policy to satisfy Spanish immigration as part of your application for a residence or a residence visa (e.g. No Lucrativa Visa), then that is usually a private health insurance policy with a Spanish provider. These are much more expensive than travel insurance policies (as they cover you for much more), and the cost goes up significantly by age and/or pre-existing conditions (just as USA medical insurance does). This will usually be an annual policy, and might cost perhaps 500-2,000 euros as a guesstimate. Ours is with ASISA, and they're a good company with reasonably priced policies. You can look at their website directly, or use a comparison engine like Rastreator.

If you just visiting Spain as a digital nomad with your laptop, and you're gonna hang out on a Mediterranean beach for a month or two, then a travel insurance policy is usually adequate. The cover provided is typically for emergency hospital treatment (accidents or sudden illness), or repatriation (flying you back to USA for treatment there).

@Sigma2022 Can I have contact details please?

@Sigma2022 Please give me your contact info. I've looked into a few companies already, but it doesn't look like I can get health insurance on a tourist visa. I'm planning on applying for the digital nomad visa in January.

@gdikel

We got health insurance in order to apply for residence. Spanish medical insurance companies don't care what your immigration status is... and, as it's a requirement for immigration purposes, it's commonplace for them to provide insurance for folks before they're officially resident. But they do rather tend to assume Spanish phone numbers and Spanish bank accounts, if you try to buy online.

Just FYI, the immigration requirement is not strictly for a Spanish provider. It's based on cover amount (x thousand euros), and deductible (zero), so you can use a USA provider (as long as it's real medical insurance, not travel insurance). And you'll need Spanish policy documents (or a certified Spanish translation).

More generally, the Digital Nomad Visa is not live yet. And maybe it won't be live in January. I think you could also consider Portugal's D7 visa perhaps? And if you have 30k euros in savings (lucky you!) you might be better off with the No Lucrativa Visa instead?

@gwynj Thanks so much for the info! So it's probably better to get the health insurance once I'm in Spain already? What is the process if I don't do it online (not planning to have a Spanish bank account yet)?

@gdikel

It's possible to do it remotely, but, for sure, it's easier to do it once you're in Spain. Probably the easiest is to walk into an insurance broker (or bank, they typically sell insurances too) and you pay for the year on your card. But... the problem with this is that you apply (I would expect) in the Spanish embassy in USA... so it's a bit of a faff to fly over to Spain to get insurance, then fly back to apply for your DNV!

A Spanish bank account isn't necessary, but is probably easier (along with a Spanish SIM/phone number). Banks can be difficult pre-residence, but we got a "non-resident" account with Sabadell.

Pretty sure you will need a proof of Spanish address, which is usually a long-term rental contract. I'd say this is a bigger deal than the medical insurance. And can also be quite hard to do remotely

It's hard to advise on the DNV as it's not active yet. I found a page that looks helpful. This says travel insurance is OK (i.e. Spanish medical insurance not required), which is a lot easier if correct. It does list quite a few documents related to your employment, and that they want historic bank statements (to prove you receive the salary stated in your employment contract, I suspect).

https://www.planet-nomad.com/en/digital-nomad-visa-spain/

Hungary has a popular DN visa and it has been running for a while. The income requirement is 2,000 euros per month, which is probably less than Spain will ask for. I'd say that a DNV in Hungary is a good option too, you can still go hang out in Spain for a couple of months. If nothing else, you can just have a look at the requirements/process, as I would expect Spain's DNV to be similar.

https://nomadgirl.co/hungary-digital-nomad-visa-white-card-requirements-process/