Expats force Spanish healthcare rethink

An aerial view of Malva-Rosa beach in Valencia May 9, 2007. Britons living in the southeastern Spanish region of Valencia have forced the local government to drop plans to strip thousands of expatriates of the right to public healthcare, campaigners said on Friday.

MADRID (Reuters) - Britons living in the southeastern Spanish region of Valencia have forced the local government to drop plans to strip thousands of expatriates of the right to public healthcare, campaigners said on Friday.

Millions of retirees have moved to the Spanish coast in recent years, many lured by property developers' promises of a sunny retirement home overlooking the Mediterranean in resorts like Alicante and Benidorm.

Bill Bridges was a policeman in Kent, England before retiring due to high blood pressure and moved to Spain five years ago, opting for Torrevieja in Valencia region because of a generous local law offering free healthcare.

However recent arrivals have placed such a strain on Valencia's health system that the regional government said earlier this year it would scrap cover for foreigners, even if they hold resident status in Spain.

After protests to the British Embassy in Madrid, consular staff and the region have thrashed out a deal whereby an estimated 3,000 early retirees will continue to receive healthcare for a 'reasonable and affordable' price.

Bridges welcomed the regional government's move, but said questions still remained about its use of free health care to lure sunseeking northern Europeans.

"The Valencian authorities certainly used the health system as an inducement to get us here," he said. "I feel tricked."

Pensioners are covered by the European Union's reciprocal health system, which means the UK picks up the bill for treatment, but the arrangement does not cover early retirees.

A draft directive published by the European Commission on Wednesday would allow patients throughout the EU to travel to other countries for treatment without authorisation from their own health authority. Britain has opposed the proposal.

However Bridges says expats like him have fallen into a healthcare black hole: not entitled to treatment in Spain, nor the UK because he cannot receive a Spanish health card and therefore European health cover.

The British Embassy told early retirees to take out private health cover, said Bridges, however insurers would not give him complete cover because of his health condition.

"What is really wrong is that the UK government have just washed their hands of us," he said.

Nobody at the British Embassy or Valencia's health ministry were available for comment on the agreement which will come into effect in January.

(Editing by Matthew Jones)