A total of 181,704 people have had access to comprehensive healthcare in the Valencian Community since the universalization of healthcare was approved in July 2015.
By province, since the start of the special processing of universal health coverage, 20,983 people in Castellón, 74,638 people in Alicante and 86,083 people in Valencia have had access to this right.
Currently, a total of 112,567 people have health coverage thanks to this initiative (13,626 in Castellón, 46,034 in Alicante and 52,907 in Valencia). In addition, another 59,908 are insured with the National Health System (mostly by acquiring Spanish citizenship) and 9,229 with other forms of insurance.
90% of the procedures correspond to citizens who do not belong to a country of the European Union. The most frequent countries of origin are, in order, Colombia (31,648 people), Ukraine (11,880), Morocco (9,126), Honduras (7,638), Venezuela (6,286), Algeria (3,406) and Argentina (3,200).
By gender, 55% of women and 45% of men have requested the procedure. And by age, the most frequent age groups are between 19 and 39 years old.
To continue raising awareness of the need for robust health systems where all people have access to quality health services regardless of their origin or situation, the United Nations is commemorating the International Day of Universal Health Coverage on 12 December.
“From the Ministry of Universal Health and Public Health we join the commemoration with the firm commitment to continue guaranteeing access through the public network to people who reside in the Valencian Community and have no other health coverage, nor are there any paid obligated third parties” , said the Minister of Health, Miguel Mínguez.
Procedure for requesting universal health care
Foreigners who have been residing in Spain for at least three months, have not regularized their situation, are registered in the Valencian Community and cannot take advantage of another type of health care, can opt for universal access. Even those who live in Spain but cannot prove their registration or have difficulty, duly accredited with a social balance sheet, in obtaining the required documents.
In both cases, the person requesting universal health assistance must go to the Health Center closest to his or her home and request an appointment from Social Assistance, which studies the situation and carries out the appropriate social assessments.
Subsequently, the territorial directorates of each province of the Valencian Community process the applications, according to the conditions of each applicant.
