Sanitas health-insurance options for DNV applicants
Sanitas offers two health plans in versions built for visa applicants. Here is what each one is for, what they have in common, and how to tell which suits you — or whether you need a policy at all.
The two Sanitas plans for a visa application
If your application needs private health insurance, there are two Sanitas plans to look at: the Sanitas Residents Visa Plan and the Sanitas Residents Platinum Visa Plan. Both are open to non-EU, non-EEA and non-Swiss nationals. Both are versions of a plan Sanitas already sells, adapted for people applying for Spanish residence rather than for people who already have it.
Sanitas calls these products Sanitas Residents para visado and Sanitas Residents Platinum para visado. “Para visado” means “for visa purposes”: they are the visa versions of the plans, not the standard EU ones.
Sanitas Residents Visa Plan
The straightforward option, and the one with the wider age window. On the Sanitas Residents Visa Plan, waiting periods are waived under the current policy terms. You can join up to age 75, and there is no published upper age for continuing.
Sanitas Residents Platinum Visa Plan
The premium version, for people who want more than care inside the network. Platinum includes benefits beyond treatment within the Sanitas network, and we'll confirm the current reimbursement and cover limits with you before you decide. You can join up to age 64, and there is no published upper age for continuing.
Which plan suits you depends on how you work, how you will be covered by Social Security, and how you are applying. The Spanish authorities make the final decision on your application.
Which of the two is right for you?
The two plans share their fundamentals, so the choice comes down to two things you can decide on: the age at which you can join, and whether you want cover beyond the Sanitas network. Residents accepts new members up to 75 and Platinum up to 64, which settles it for anyone applying at 65 or over. Platinum adds benefits beyond treatment within the Sanitas network, and we'll confirm the current reimbursement and cover limits with you before you decide. If you want the choice walked through: how to choose a Sanitas option for the DNV →. If you want them side by side: Residents vs Residents Platinum Visa Plan →. And if you would rather not read any of it, ask for a quote and tell us “help me choose”.
What happens before we recommend anything
Tell us who needs cover, where in Spain you will be living and how you are applying. Before recommending a Sanitas plan we check whether private insurance is what your application needs at all. If it isn't, we tell you that and explain what does apply to you, rather than selling you a policy to be on the safe side. Families are worked through one person at a time, and we say who we think should be on the policy before anything is priced.
How underwriting works
Private health insurance is medically underwritten. That means the insurer looks at each person's health history before agreeing to cover them, and decides both whether to offer a policy and on what terms. It is the part of buying cover people worry about most, usually because nobody explains it.
In practice you answer questions about your health, and each person to be covered answers for themselves. Sanitas then decides. An application can be accepted as it stands, accepted with a specific condition left out of cover, put on hold until something is clearer, or turned down. None of those decisions is ours, and we cannot tell you in advance which one you will get.
Three things are worth knowing before you start:
- Answer fully and accurately. An insurer that later finds an answer was incomplete can act on that, and a policy you cannot rely on is worse than no policy at all.
- Do not cancel cover you already have. Not until a decision on the new policy is final and you have seen the terms in writing. We will never suggest otherwise.
- Ask what was decided, in writing. If something has been left out of cover, you want to know exactly what, in your own documentation, rather than discovering it when you claim.
Underwriting is individual even when a family is covered together. Two people on the same policy can be accepted on materially different terms, and that is ordinary rather than a sign that something has gone wrong.
If you have a condition you are worried about, tell us early. We would rather set out what usually happens next than have you spend a month deciding whether to ask.
From first enquiry to cover in place
Nothing here is complicated, but the order matters. Doing step two before step one is what produces the wrong policy.
- Work out whether you need a policy. How you work and how you will be covered by Social Security decide this, and they decide it before any plan feature becomes relevant.
- Say who needs cover. One person, a couple, a family, or some of a family. This is a per-person question, not a household one.
- Choose between the two plans. Age settles it for some people; for everyone else it is a question of how much cover you want beyond the Sanitas network.
- Answer the health questions. Each person answers for themselves, and the insurer decides from there.
- Agree a start date. Decide it deliberately rather than leaving it as “as soon as possible”, and check that the date on your paperwork is the date you asked for.
- Check the documentation you receive. Read it against what you asked for: the plan name, the people named on it, the start date and the term.
We do steps two to six with you. Step one is the one we would ask you to take seriously even if you never speak to us.
Covering a family on one policy
A family can be covered together. What that does not mean is that a family is assessed together.
Everyone on the policy is named on it, and everyone is priced and underwritten as an individual. Published multi-person discounts apply where one applies, and we will tell you which when we quote. Children aged 0 to 2 need an insured adult on the policy; children aged 3 to 18 can be enrolled with an adult policyholder.
The part worth pausing on is who should be on the policy at all. A person covered through Spanish Social Security, or through a system they remain in at home, may not need a private policy for the application even though the rest of the household does. We work that out person by person and tell you the result before pricing anything. If someone wants cover anyway, for their own reasons rather than for the application, that is a perfectly reasonable thing to buy and we will quote it as such.
One document naming one person evidences one person. If four of you are applying, four names have to appear somewhere.
Questions worth asking before you buy
Ask these of us, or of anyone else selling you a policy. They are the ones that get you a fact rather than a reassurance.
- Do I need a private policy at all? If the answer arrives without any questions about how you work, it was not an answer to your situation.
- Which exact plan is this quote for? Ask for the name the insurer uses, and check whether it is the visa version or the standard one.
- Who is named on it? Every person who needs cover should appear by name.
- What does the current policy documentation say about the benefits that matter to me, as opposed to what the summary says?
- What has been decided about my health history, and where is that written down?
- When does cover start, and how long does it run?
- What will I receive as documentation, and in whose name?
- What happens at renewal? Both to the cover and to the price.
If an answer comes back as a brochure line rather than a fact about your own policy, that is worth noticing before you pay for it.
What people get wrong about Sanitas cover for a visa
Buying the standard plan by mistake. The visa versions and the standard versions share a name and are different products, sold to different people on different terms. If the paperwork in front of you does not say which one it is, ask rather than assume.
Buying before checking. The most expensive version of this is a policy bought in week one by somebody who turns out to be covered another way entirely.
Reading a summary instead of the conditions. A comparison table, a marketing page and a summary sheet are none of them the policy. The conditions in force are what govern every benefit.
Leaving the health questions to the end. Underwriting is the step with the least predictable timing, so it is the one to start early rather than the one to leave until the week before you submit.
Cover beyond the application stage
People buy these plans for an application and then live with them for years, so choose for how you will actually use healthcare in Spain rather than only for the paperwork. Somebody living in one city and using the Sanitas network for planned care wants a different thing from somebody who spends a third of the year in another country.
Visa approval does not itself decide when your policy ends. Renewal, and what can change at it, is set out on the Residents Visa Plan page.
Family cover and pricing are the places to start.
Tell us your situation once
We check it, then recommend the Sanitas plan that fits — or tell you plainly if private cover isn't what your application needs.
Common questions
Which Sanitas plans work for the DNV?
Where private cover is what your application needs, the two to compare are the Sanitas Residents Visa Plan and the Sanitas Residents Platinum Visa Plan.
What is a Visa Plan, and what does "para visado" mean?
We call them the Residents Visa Plan and the Residents Platinum Visa Plan. Sanitas's own names for them are Sanitas Residents para visado and Sanitas Residents Platinum para visado, and “para visado” means “for visa purposes”. They are versions for non-EU, non-EEA and non-Swiss nationals, and on these Sanitas Visa Plans waiting periods are waived under the current policy terms. The standard Sanitas Residents variants carry 3–10-month waiting periods and are a different product for a different buyer.
How do I know which version I'm being quoted?
Ask, and ask for the answer in writing. The visa versions and the standard versions share a name and are not interchangeable, so a quote that does not say which one it is has not told you what you are buying.
Who decides whether I'm accepted?
The insurer does. You answer questions about your health, each person answers for themselves, and Sanitas decides whether to offer cover and on what terms. We can explain the process and what usually happens next, but we cannot promise an outcome, and anyone who does is guessing.
Can my family be on one policy?
Yes, cover can be arranged together. Everyone is still named, priced and underwritten individually, and published multi-person discounts apply where one applies. We work out who actually needs to be on it before we price anything.
Do I need the premium plan for my application?
No. Which plan you choose is a decision about the cover you want, not about your application, and the receiving authority makes the final decision either way.