Visa health insurance for a family: one policy or separate ones?

Key rules

• Who needs a policy: Each family member who applies with you on a route that needs private cover needs their own named policy and certificate. A reunified spouse, partner or child needs none (covered through the sponsor's Social Security); a reunified parent needs their own private policy.
• Safest choice: Individual certificates for each person cause the fewest problems.
• Family policy: A single policy is only worth buying if it names every member and states the full cover conditions.

Who needs a policy

• Family applying on their own route (non-lucrative or student, for example): each person needs their own named policy and certificate, with the same conditions as an adult's: full cover in Spain, no copayments and no waiting periods.
• Spouse, partner and children reunified with a resident: they are covered as beneficiaries through the sponsor's Social Security and need no private policy.
• Parents reunified with a resident: parents are excluded as beneficiaries and need their own private health insurance for the whole stay, with the same conditions: full cover, no copayments and no waiting periods.
• Partners on different routes: each person's cover follows their own route. An employed partner is covered by Social Security; the other partner needs a policy if their route requires private cover.

Partners, children and other family

• Spouse: counts as family for reunification.
• Registered partner: counts as family for reunification.
• Unregistered partner: counts as family for reunification if you prove a stable relationship: 1 year living together, or a child in common. Without that proof the partner cannot be reunified as a partner; they apply on their own route and need their own policy.
• Children: a child needs a policy on the same conditions as an adult, in their own name, at every age. A child who travels later than you needs a certificate in their own name that is in force on their own application date.
• A baby born in Spain after you arrive: the baby needs named cover from birth. Ask your insurer to add the baby to your policy, or buy a separate policy, and use that certificate for the baby's residence application. If a parent is affiliated to Social Security, the baby is covered as a beneficiary.
• Dependent parent or other dependant: you prove their financial dependence on you with documents. A parent needs their own private health insurance for the whole stay, whether reunified by a resident or on their own route, with the same conditions (full cover, no copayments, no waiting periods), in their own name or on a family policy that names them; see When a parent does not qualify: other routes to check.

The papers that prove each relationship, and how to legalise them, are in Family reunification for residents.

When one family policy can work

A single family policy or combined certificate is accepted if it lists every family member by name and states the full cover conditions. Individual certificates avoid a common problem: family members often submit their applications at different times, and a shared certificate then causes trouble.

If you are an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen

You need no visa, so the family policy rules do not apply to you. Family members of EU citizens and UK citizens with Withdrawal Agreement rights: see who needs private cover.