Doctors, insurance and emergencies in Valencia

Getting the SIP

The Valencian health card is the SIP, run by the Conselleria de Sanitat rather than by a national body. You register in person at the centro de salud covering your registered address, taking an identity document and your padrón certificate; staff enter you in the system and hand you a provisional document the same day. It can also be done remotely through the Generalitat's procedures portal with a digital certificate or Cl@ve. The information line is 012, or +34 96 386 60 00, Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 19:00.

• Bring a DNI, NIE or passport, plus the padrón certificate for the address.
• EU citizens can register on a European Health Insurance Card or its provisional replacement certificate.
• The centre is set by your registered address, not by preference.

What covers you before then

Non-EU nationals on a teleworker, non-lucrative or student visa must already hold private insurance with cover equivalent to the public system, and EU registrants who are neither working nor studying have to show the same for the EX-18. That policy is what carries you until the SIP exists. Cover is inexpensive by northern European standards: comparator surveys in 2026 put the average individual policy near €61 a month, with basic policies that carry copayments around €25 to €30 and full cover without copayments nearer €80. A visa or an EX-18 needs the full-cover kind rather than the cheapest one, so get quotes for your own age and province rather than trusting a headline figure.

The two public routes that will not help yet

Asistencia sanitaria universal is the cover of last resort: you go to a centro de salud and ask to be referred to the trabajador social, with a passport, proof of address and evidence of at least three months of padrón registration and effective residence in a Comunitat Valenciana municipality. The convenio especial is the paid route into the public system, at €60 a month under 65 and €157 a month from 65, but it requires a full continuous year of effective residence immediately beforehand plus current padrón registration. Neither is open to you in your first weeks. Budget the first year around a private policy and treat the SIP as what replaces it.

Emergencies, and cover outside Spain

112 is the emergency number, free from any phone, and covers ambulance, police and fire across Spain. The SIP gives you nothing outside Spain, which catches people who assume it behaves like a European card. If you travel within the EU or EEA, request the European Health Insurance Card separately from the INSS before you go.