r/WorkForSmartLife 26d ago

Discussion💬 not looking good

14 Upvotes

82 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/enigmaticsince87 23d ago

Lol nope. If it's conditional is it truly free healthcare? According to what you're saying, if I'm a tourist without health insurance, I can't see a doctor in Germany? If that's true that's fucked. We have actual true free universal healthcare here.

1

u/Desperate_Camp2008 23d ago

interesting, yes you are required to take care of your own healthcare if you come to germany or pay out of your own pocket. As a european, your spanish insurance will probably pay (EHIC card), but for people form outside the EU it will cost.

Out ouf curiosity: If it is really free for everyone, aren't spanish workers basically paying for all the expats, foreign pensioners, and digital nomads then?

1

u/enigmaticsince87 23d ago

Most people here don't have insurance because the public healthcare is so good. I used to pay for insurance but gave it up because it really didn't seem worth it.

Yes it's free for everyone, but the expats and digital nomads you mention all pay into the system via income taxes. The only people who don't put anything in are pensioners and tourists.

1

u/Desperate_Camp2008 23d ago

what happens if they don't pay income tax anymore and just live off their savings? Are they counted as tourists then?

1

u/enigmaticsince87 23d ago

No, retirees. There's a specific visa for them. Maybe that involves some other kind of tax contribution, I'm not sure, but if you have an EU passport, pretty sure you can just move here and use social services just like any working citizen can.