Cover Medical Card Withdrawn – Possible Reasons

Unfortunately, the Seguridad Social doesn´t inform those insured for public healthcare, if in their opinion, something in your personal circumstances has changed or needs to be re-confirmed, to guarantee continued entitlement but instead the cover of your medical card will be suspended until the situation has been regularised. In most cases you will only notice when you try to make an appointment with a medical professional or try to access your prescription meds at the pharmacy.

Naturally, the reasons can be many, but we outline the most common below.

• A simple case of deterioration of the card, that causes the chip to malfunction. You´ll need to order a new card

• Some managed to register with just their passport number and ´libro de familia´.  On routine cross checks your card will come up and you´ll need to go to the INSS office in your area to provide proof of registered residency so they can add your NIE number.

• Gradually all regional medical cards will be replaced by a nationally valid one. Project to be completed by end of 2018. Your medical centre will be in the loop about that if is your village´s turn to do so.

• You obtained free cover through the ´bajos recursos´ scheme when you were still under 65 and now you´ve reached pensionable age and are in receipt of a foreign state pension. You are only entitled to free cover if there is no other way to access healthcare which is no longer the case once you are in receipt of a state pension. You need to obtain a S1 form from your home EU country to transfer your entitlement to healthcare to your present country of residence, so Spain. If you have a spouse or registered partner that has not reached pensionable age yet, you need to ask for a S1 in her/his name as well, so he/she can be registered as your dependant/beneficiario at the Seguridad Social. Register the S1 with the INSS in your area, you will get a certificate of entitlement that you need to take to your local healthcentre.

Partner passes and you were registered as dependent on the spouse.
• If you registered a child as your dependant, but the child has a different surname than yours. You can be asked to confirm family tie at INSS office if the ´discrepancy´ comes up in a routine check.

• If you are in receipt of a temporary SIP card (Valencia area) you need to renew timely. If you are not a resident, and renew several times, your non-resident status might be put in doubt and you would need to provide proof of residency and no-entitlement letter from your home country.

• If you registered before the no-entitlement letter was introduced, you might be asked to provide the INSS with one at any time they notice they do not have one on file for you.

• If you´ve obtained a temporary healthcard, on the presumption of cover through your EHIC and that runs out without you having noticed.

• No apparent reason, but you´ll still need to visit the INSS office to re-confirm your status.

Change in circumstance that you should NOT have to inform the INSS about is when your situation changes from being a dependant/beneficiario to working on a contract or as autonomo, as your status will be updated by the INSS automatically.

Please note: The information provided is based upon our understanding of current legislation. It is not legal advice but is provided freely to enable you to be properly informed. We recommend that if you are considering taking action, you should seek professional advice.