Malaga province residents have the highest take up of private health insurance in Andalucía

Private healthcare is gaining ground in Malaga province with 26.8 per cent of residents having private health insurance, according to data provided by the Spanish Union of Insurance Entities (Unespa).

In December 2020, some half a million people (452,561) had a private health insurance policy, in part due to dissatisfaction with waiting list at public healthcare facilities which worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly 30,000 signed up for it during the first year of the pandemic.

In Andalucía, 20 per cent of people have private health insurance, and nationally 23 per cent of people have private health insurance. The number of people with private insurance has grown rapidly in Malaga province with roughly 16 per cent holding it in 2011.

Public health compels patients to go to a primary care doctor for any referrals to a specialist, who then prescribes what tests are needed to lead to a diagnosis. Some people are frustrated by waiting times and opt instead for private health insurance. Increasingly companies are also offering private health coverage to their employees.

Carlos Bueno, representative for Private Medicine at the College of Physicians of Malaga, said people buy private health insurance because in recent years "more than a deterioration in public health, what has occurred is an improvement in private health and that has been shown with the pandemic. Without that contribution, there would have been a collapse of surgical interventions and of the waiting list due to the tsunami that the appearance of the coronavirus represented.”