Portugal health care

[seb47]

I know this is a little out of order and fully expect to be moderated, but hope someone in France has a relevant contact.

Has anyone got any knowledge of the EU healthcare edicts in Portugal - re those of us Brits with expired E 106s, under state retirement age with pre existing conditions, Is it a condition of residancy in Portugal to have private health insuranceI if not working, below retirement age? I 'm getting different and seemingly ill-informed answers from a Portugal Forum.

No-one seems to know what is going on really.

[Catalpa]

[quote user="seb47"]I 'm getting different and seemingly ill-informed answers from a Portugal Forum.

No-one seems to know what is going on really.

[/quote]

Gosh. Just like most French forums then. Who'da thought it? [:P]

Try phoning the Portugese Embassy in London? They must be used to answering that query accurately and in English. [:D]

http://www.portugal.embassy-uk.co.uk/

[gosub]

You may find some info HERE or HERE

[Cat]

Sounds remarkably like the French system ...

Conditions to acquire a long-term resident status

1- Status of long-term resident is granted to the third-country national who:

a) Has a legal and uninterrupted residence in national territory for at least five years

before filing the request;

b) Has stable and regular resources for his/her own livelihood and his/her family

members without help from the solidarity subsystem;

c) Holds a health insurance;

d) Has lodging;

e) Proficient in basic Portuguese.

[Will]

Residence requirements are pretty much consistent across the EU states. Differences come about through the different ways that the individual state health schemes operate - whether membership is purely residence-based, as in Britain, or insurance-based, as in most of Europe, or a sort of hybrid, as in France.

Portugal has a residence-based health service, so anybody in established and stable residence there can, in theory, take advantage of this. However it appears that this 'state health assurance' has to be applied for, and applications are not always approved, or that getting the required cards can take forever. Also the 'free' service you get is extremely basic, and there are still prescription charges and taxes to be paid for treatment, so nearly everybody has private cover as well. Costs quoted for private cover in Portugal are considerably lower than those for France, as there is not the same high compulsory minimum level of cover.

[seb47]

Thanks all for the quick and concise info. Judging by the replies given by Brits I've spoken to in Portugal, there must be loads of them out there without a clue! (Until they need to go to the doctors I suppose).

[Cat]

Rather like asking expat residents here if they think that they need to fill in a French tax return then.

Not all, by any means, but some...

[woolybanana]

Do they? That's new.[6]

[odile]

There is somebody called Madeira on  totalfrance.com  forum, who lives in Portugal. Try him.

[seb47]

Thanks Odile -will do.