The SIP card and social security: accessing healthcare in Valencia

Getting healthcare in Valencia is one of life's great comforts here — but first you have to open up your entitlement. In the Valencia region, the health card is called the SIP card. Here's the path, which varies a little depending on whether or not you're paying contributions.

The journey in three steps

1. Open a right to healthcare: either by paying contributions (you're employed or an autónomo, via your social security number), or through another route (an S1 form for pensioners, insurance, the convenio especial…).
2. Apply for the SIP card at a health centre in your neighbourhood.
3. Get assigned a health centre and a family doctor, based on your address — you can switch later if you want.

Important: having the SIP card doesn't create the right, it accredits it. The right itself comes from your situation.

If you're working: the easy route

Employed or autónomo, your affiliation to social security opens your entitlement directly. You get your affiliation number, then apply for your SIP. This is the smoothest case.

If you're not working (yet): the options

• Retired and covered by another EU country: if you're an EU pensioner, request the S1 form from the relevant authority in your home country (before you leave, ideally), then register it with the INSS in Spain. It's the S1 that opens your entitlement as long as you're not contributing here. (Non-EU retirees can't use the S1 — see below.)
• European Health Insurance Card (EHIC/CEAM): it only covers temporary stays, not a long-term move. To settle, you need another basis of entitlement.
• Private insurance: often required to get your green card if you're not working — and, in practice, the main route for non-EU retirees, who can't rely on an S1.
• Convenio especial: a paid public option (around €60/month under 65) for anyone who has been empadronado for a year with no other cover. It doesn't cover prescription medicines at the pharmacy.

Getting the SIP card, in practice

You do it in person, at the health centre for your neighbourhood. Bring:

• your ID (passport or green card);
• your empadronamiento certificate — this is the key document;
• your social security document (affiliation, or S1/EHIC depending on your case).

Book an appointment (the health centre's phone line, the GVA + Salut app, or 012). The card comes in a physical version and a virtual one in the app.

The empadronamiento, again. It's the key to the SIP: no town hall registration, no card. Some accounts mention a roughly three-month wait of being empadronado before you can get it — this isn't spelled out officially, so check it directly with your health centre.

English-speaking doctors and going private

The public system covers the essentials; private insurance is not compulsory once you have a public entitlement open. It's still handy for cutting waiting times or seeing English-speaking practitioners — your consulate and private insurers are the usual ways to find them.

And in an emergency?

The 112 is the single, free number that works even without a SIM card or phone plan. And public hospitals are required to treat any life-threatening emergency, whether or not your paperwork is in order.

Sources

• Generalitat Valenciana — Individual Health Card (SIP)
• Generalitat Valenciana — SIP card procedures
• Seguridad Social — Applying for a social security number
• Seguridad Social — S1 form (healthcare outside your home country)

Information verified in June 2026. Procedures, taxes and prices change fast: before you go anywhere, always check the official source (links below). The Daily Valencia is an AI-assisted publication with human review — spotted a mistake? Drop us a line.