I’m currently building up a picture of what our budget will look like when we are eventually living in Portugal. One of the things we need to budget for is health care cover. At the moment we are both covered by our company Private Health Plan which costs us next to nothing every month. I’ve put some quotes into the BUPA website tonight, and this has given me a variety of options and costs to think about.
For the fully comprehensive cover the cost is £3,732 for the two of us per year. If you have an excess of £1000, this then reduces to £1,879 per year.
The cost for basic cover, just hospital in and out patient care, is £2,021 a year. Obviously this would reduce if you had an excess amount on the policy.
We would be looking for the fully comprehensive cover, as you never know what is around the corner, however would have the excess of £1000 and self insure ourselves for anything up to this amount.
Dentist treatment is also expensive in Portugal and I read somewhere that its better to keep your dentist back home and visit them when you come back, however this is no good if you need emergency treatment, so we will need to make sure we have money to cover this eventuality if it happens.
Further reading:
BUPA Website
Preparing to move or retire abroad
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi, I’m a Brit (well, I was) and I have lived in Portugal for fifteen+ years.
If you are planning to move over here to live permanently then as long as you get residencia (officially registered as living here) and sign on to the healthcare system here (simple – visit the local Centro de Saude with the required docs – passport, residencia, fiscal number – also simple to get – etc.) then voilá you are covered by the Portuguese version of the NHS. Except the NHS is nowhere near as good as Portugal’s health service.
All emergency treatment is free. Other stuff costs, but as long as you are registered it’s not bank-breakingly expensive.
As for dentists, they are quite expensive, but no more than Brit dentists in general.
None of this is to say that you shouldn”t get private health cover, that’s a good idea, but just to say that it isn’t absolutely essential.
I have been following your blog for quite a while, out of curiosity. If you ever need any advice re. living in Portugal or just want general info or you have questions about what it is really like to live here (or what specific bits of living here are like) feel free to drop me a line.
I can’t promise instant replies, but I will reply, and I know pretty much all there is to know about living down here and being a Brit, as, as I mentioned, I have been doing just that for a very long time.
If there is something I’m not sure about, my wife will know as she is Portuguese.
My email is ‘rogister AT gmail DOT com’.
Anyway, good luck. You’ll get here in the end. It’s really not very difficult.
- R.
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Incidentally, I have just read your first few posts.
I actually live in Alfarrobeira – about two miles from Loulé.
Thought that you might be interested, as you mention this area in those posts (I hadn’t seen those before).
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Hi Rob
Thank you so much for the advice. The whole idea of this blog and for us taking our time in doing this was to get as much help and advice from people who have already done what we are going to do.
If you read books about living in Portugal you would think that you definitley need healthcare, so thanks for that.
The offer of help is much appreciated
Laura
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