Health Insurance in Portugal

@bloggerblogger

I strongly recommend getting your insurance through your bank. Millennium offers Medis insurance that is quite comprehensive and also quite affordable. My husband and I have the biggest plan available (that includes cancer treatment, which he has), and that costs us a little over 100 Euro a month. This same insurance completely covered all his chemo and a massive operation he had last year. It's also very fast and easy - you can probably complete it all online, but we had our bank representative do it for us, and it took about three days.

Medicare is not health insurance, but health plan. There are many differences between the two types.

You could explore health plans further for other options.

As for health insurance, our family went with mgen

We use MGEN never had a problem with them been with them for a few years now, we were with our bank but they never paid out no problems like that with MGEN

My wife and I just signed with Mgen as well. we went through a broker called Medal Insurance. So far so good. We have our SEF appointment next month.

@raychirayath  Do you know which of the plans with MGEN meet the minimum requirements for the SEF?  Their base plan is low-cost.

Bonjour,

C'est quoi un RDV SEF ... ?

Merci bien et bonne journée...

@Jim Garrison I believe even the most basic plan with them would meet SEF requirements. We decided to go one step up to the what is called the Mgen Ideal plan. It's more expensive - about 250/mth for both of us. Hope that helps.

@raychirayath  Thanks!  I was leaning toward the Ideal plan. 

    We use MGEN never had a problem with them been with them for a few years now, we were with our bank but they never paid out no problems like that with MGEN
   

    -@Jean Denise

Bonjour Jean Denise,

Nous somme sinstallés dans l'Aveiro depuis  avril 2023 et sommes à la recherche d'une assurance complémentaire qui nous couvrirait dans le privé et bien sûr à un cout non excessif  ...

Mon épouse est ex-fonctionnaire de l'EN et est encore couverte en France par la MGEN.

Pouvez-vous, nous en dire plus sur la  MGEN et sa couverture au Portugal ?

Merci bien et bonne semaine,

Nicole et Patrice

@navarrolindien, Hi.

Mgen's medical network is AdvanceCare.

https://www.mgen.pt/

(Select "Rede Médica" + "directorio clinico") at the bottom of the page. You'll get this:

https://simulator.advancecare.pt/pt/directorio

Here you can search by service, district, city, medical speciality, etc...

Please, you must write in english here. If you want to write in french, use this page:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=4384

_____

Private Healthcare System in Portugal

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=914196

I find it incredible all the money people are paying for these private health plans. My advice, if you absolutely need a plan for SEF interview, is just buy the absolute cheapest plan you can get. You might find, unless you live in Lisbon, Porto or Braga, that whatever you buy, that it is worthless in reality. They have huge initial deductibles - read the fine print, plus if you are anywhere outside one of the bigger Portuguese cities, you will find you might not even have a practitioner anywhere near your town. I would register and rely on the Portuguese health service. You will hear complaints about this service but I can tell you that if you know how to use it, that it is absolutely incredible - as good as any country anywhere. Absolutely fantastic level of treatment and professionalism. And, one of the other incredible benefits we receive as immigrants, its FREE!

Again, my advice, for what it is worth, if you really want to buy medical coverage, would be to spend the money on a Dental Plan, which has no State coverage (except in certain very limited circumstances), since dental treatment can add up very very quickly.

Hey guys,

Anyone had experience with InovExpat Health Insurance?

@Perpetual_traveler For many the National Health Service (SNS) is the only affordable option and for accidents and emergencies and the like it is probably good. I wouldn't expect top services for complicated cases outside the main centres (Lisbon or Porto) though. Plus, if one is healthy and not in need to major medical services then it all doesn't matter.

However, I am in my 60s now and happy with my private health insurance and wouldn't want to be without it.

@bloggerblogger

I wouldn't hire anything with expat in their name. Use local companies always.

Well, it's just a brokerage, so I would expect you'd end up with Allianz etc.  At worst, you'd pay extra for the same mega-insurer as everyone else, and with any luck at all you might get some English speaking advocacy along with it.

Not having dealt much with Insurance policies before, I find the amount of information you need to digest almost overwhelming.

I can see I will have to learn about this step by step.

I have been to the Centro de Saude a couple of times, but with only a basic knowledge of Portuguese, communication has been very difficult.

@Perpetual_traveler   I would welcome your insights in how to best use the SNS.

If I may make a suggestion? I  am also looking at this at the moment, and faced similar struggles.

I don't know your bank, but I am with Millennium and my advisor was knowledgeable and bilingual.

30 minutes with him gave me a clear picture of the cover and details, which was a great help.

Possibly your bank has a similar service, but it did help me make up my mind.