Couple in Their 70s Demands Healthcare One Month After Arriving in Spain

Couple in Their 70s Demands Healthcare One Month After Arriving in Spain}

A 70- and 74-year-old couple, having lived in Spain for just one month, arrives at a health center demanding their health card. This is not an isolated case. The scene, captured and shared on social media, has reignited the debate on health tourism and the requirements for accessing the public health system.

Who Pays the Bill?

The group Yo Sí Sanidad Universal, defining itself as an independent citizen movement, has accompanied several newly arrived immigrants in processing their care. According to some healthcare workers, health centers barely verify effective residency: it is enough for the INSS to approve the registration. This allows uninsured individuals, including elderly people who will hardly contribute, to access expensive treatments.

The anecdote of a Senegalese saleswoman who brought her sister with cancer from Senegal to treat her here—before even the last decree—illustrates the phenomenon. Meanwhile, Spanish patients with decades of contributions wait months for a CT scan: an online story recounts the case of a woman who died after waiting a year and a half for a brain test.

The Transplant Business

The most sensitive point concerns transplants. Several testimonies suggest that foreign citizens come specifically to Spain to receive organs, even sent by their own doctors. "They came to take our pensions and ended up taking our livers," one analysis jokes about the paradox of Spain leading in donations while the system suffers. The perception that donors are mostly natives and recipients are immigrants adds tension to the debate.

Decree or No Decree

Current regulations, reinforced by a 2025 royal decree, remove prior residency requirements for emergency and primary care assistance. The opposition criticizes that this turns Spain into a "health tourism" destination without reciprocity. Those defending the measure cite human rights and the need to avoid pockets of excluded people. But the numbers, as one thread analysis reminds us, do not add up: "It is impossible to give unlimited free healthcare to anyone invading the country without having contributed a single cent."

[/SIZE]

The debate does not close. Waiting lists grow longer, private insurance premiums rise, and confidence in the public system erodes. Meanwhile, the 70- and 74-year-old couple already has their health card.

Related Forum Debates

• ¡¡¡¡PROGENITORA MIA...COMO VIENEN ESTOS JOVENES...PAREJA DE 18 AÑITOS EXHIBIENDO EN FRUTA....ELLA DICE QUE SE LO TRAGA TODO..!! ¿LE GUSTA..' · 55 responses
• acabo de ver LA PLAYA, peli de 2000 de leonardo di caprio, y es brootal la dismorfia a la que nos han llevado las redes y los gimrat lgtb · 34 responses
• La misteriosa empresa que compra libros viejos para entrenar a la IA y los destruye · 59 responses
• Francia ya no es un país de primer mundo · 10 responses