Healthcare in Spain: Part 1

Matt checking in for an appointment to register our address (called empadronamiento ). Okay… So writing about bureaucratic systems doesn’t sound (or look) as interesting as food, but bear with us while we nerd out on some facts of life here that we do in fact find just as captivating. Spain has a robust universal healthcare system, and as Americans used to a privatized system, we’ve been quite curious to see how things work here. From casually talking with Spaniards, we’ve gathered that they generally feel positive and grateful for the quality of care they have access to. Although, almost all are quick to complain about long wait times. One major assurance regarding wait times; if you have an urgent health problem, you will skip to the front of the line. Our visa situation here permits us to use the universal healthcare system, and this month we finally got all of our paperwork in order to register. So, yes!… we’ve both had our initial appointment with our primary care phy...