Healthcare in Mallorca for expats: how the public system works, who can use it and when private cover makes sense

By Tomás Schwaighofer Pérez, exclusive insurance agent («agente de seguros exclusivo») of Sanitas, S.A. de Seguros · DGSFP no. C032043207680H
Reviewed on 21 October 2026

I'm an exclusive Sanitas agent, so I sell private health insurance. I'm starting with the public system anyway. Plenty of people who move here are covered by it, and you should know where you stand before you pay for anything.

One thing first, because the names sound alike. Salud Balear is the name of my agency. The public health service of the Balearic Islands is IB-Salut, and I'm not part of it.

How does healthcare work in Mallorca?

Mallorca has two systems side by side. The public one is run by IB-Salut, the Balearic Islands' health service, and Spanish law funds its care at health centres and hospitals in full (Ley 16/2003, article 8 bis). The private one is made up of insurers and their networks of doctors and clinics, which you pay for through a monthly premium.

In the public system, everything starts with your family doctor (médico de familia) at your local health centre (centro de salud). Spanish law gives primary care the job of coordinating your care, and specialists take over when primary care can't resolve the problem (Ley 16/2003, articles 12 and 13). In practice, that means a referral from your GP.

The Balearic Islands are split into 61 basic health zones, each with its own health centre. Mallorca is also divided into four health sectors, and each sector has a public hospital.

Many residents use both systems. In the Balearic Islands, 30.1% of people have private health insurance, against 26.2% across Spain, according to the IDIS 2026 report on 2025 data. Taking out a private policy doesn't cancel your public entitlement: you can use either.

Can foreigners use public healthcare in Mallorca?

Yes, if you live here legally and don't have to prove health cover some other way. That's how Spanish law puts it (Ley 16/2003, article 3.2.c). In practice, it covers people who work or are self-employed in Spain, pensioners with an S1 form and their families. Non-lucrative visa holders are left out, because their permit requires private insurance.

You'd be in good company. Mallorca had 206,338 foreign residents on 1 January 2025, according to the 2025 report of the Balearic Economic and Social Council (CES), which uses INE data. This is how the most common situations work out.

The non-lucrative visa row surprises people, and the wording of the law explains it. Public funding covers foreign residents who don't have "the obligation to prove compulsory health cover by another route". The non-lucrative visa asks you to prove exactly that: a private policy, which the consulates require to come from an insurer authorised in Spain. Bogotá and Buenos Aires also require it to have no copays and no waiting periods. What that policy has to include is in the guide to health insurance for the non-lucrative visa. If you're coming on the digital nomad visa, read the digital nomad visa guide instead.

How do I get a health card (tarjeta sanitaria) in Mallorca?

It takes two steps. First, Spain recognises your right: a job or self-employment does that through Social Security, and pensioners or family members apply to the INSS, the national social security institute. Then you ask IB-Salut for your individual health card (TSI), online with a digital certificate or Cl@ve, or at your health centre by booking on 971 220 000.

In order, this is what you'll do:

1. Register on the padrón at your town hall. IB-Salut asks for a current padrón certificate when it records a new address, except in 26 Mallorca municipalities, Palma, Calvià and Manacor among them. A padrón certificate issued for travel isn't accepted.
2. Get your right recognised. If you work, your employer's registration (or your own, as an autónomo) gives you a Social Security number. S1 pensioners and family members apply to the INSS with the "solicitud de reconocimiento del derecho a la asistencia sanitaria", at a Social Security office (CAISS) or online.
3. Apply for the card. Online, choose "solicitud inicial" in IB-Salut's procedure and you'll be told which health centre to collect it from. In person, book an appointment at your health centre through INFOSALUT CONNECTA on 971 220 000.
4. Take your NIE (or DNI) and a recent colour photo of 26 x 32 mm, the same format as a Spanish ID card. The card is valid for four years.

The online route needs a Spanish digital certificate, an electronic DNI or Cl@ve permanente. If you don't have any of them yet, go through your health centre.

I have an S1 from the UK or Germany. What do I do?

Request the S1 in the country that pays your pension, then register it with the INSS once you live in Mallorca. From then on, you and your family are treated in the public system here, under Spanish rules. UK State Pension holders request it by phone from NHS Overseas Healthcare Services; German statutory pensioners, from their Krankenkasse.

The S1 depends on your home country. Spain treats you if you'd be entitled to treatment in the country that pays your pension, as the EU's Your Europe portal explains. So if you've retired early and don't draw a state pension yet, this route usually isn't open to you, and you're in the "EU citizen not working, with no S1" row of the table above. The same applies, as a rule, to Germans with private health insurance (PKV): the S1 comes from the statutory scheme.

Three practical points. The EU's own leaflet on the S1 advises requesting it before you move, because asking afterwards can delay your registration in Spain. It's issued per person, not per family, so your spouse needs their own. And for UK pensioners, gov.uk says the INSS gives you a document to take to your health centre, and that with an S1 you also get a UK-issued GHIC or EHIC for travelling.

What if I have no residence permit?

You can still get public healthcare with IB-Salut's DAS card, as long as you have no cover by another route. You apply in person at your health centre, with your passport or another identity document, a current padrón registration and the sworn declarations the health centre gives you to sign. The card lasts a year from the day it's issued.

The legal basis is article 3 ter of Ley 16/2003, which gives foreigners who aren't registered or authorised as residents a right to healthcare, with conditions. EU citizens and people from countries with a social security agreement also have to bring a document showing they can't bring their cover from home.

Does my EHIC or GHIC cover me if I live in Mallorca?

No. The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) and the UK's GHIC are for temporary stays: they cover treatment that can't wait until you get home, and only from public providers. Once Mallorca is your home, your cover has to come from Spain's system or from a policy of your own.

The EU's wording leaves little room: "Your EHIC does not cover private healthcare." And its rule for people who move is just as clear: in principle, you're only fully entitled to medical treatment in the country where you live.

What if I can't get public healthcare?

You have two routes: a private policy, or the convenio especial, a pay-in agreement with the public system. In the Balearic Islands, IB-Salut charges €60 a month if you're under 65 and €157 from 65, the amounts set by Royal Decree 576/2013. It isn't open to you on arrival day: it asks for a year of continuous residence first.

To sign it, you must be registered on the padrón in the Balearic Islands when you apply, have no access to public healthcare by any other route, and have lived at least a year without a break right before applying (article 3 of the Royal Decree). The decree says that year must be in Spain. IB-Salut's own page also counts a year in another EU or EEA country, Switzerland or the UK, so if you're moving from one of them, ask IB-Salut before you assume you have to wait. It gives you the basic public package: care at health centres and hospitals, plus urgent ambulance transport. Prescriptions aren't included, so you pay the full price of your medicines.

On price alone, the convenio is hard to beat under 65. At 40, Sanitas Más Salud with the medium copay costs €76.02 a month in Mallorca. What the convenio doesn't change is the way in: you still reach a specialist through your GP. With a private policy such as Más Salud, you choose the specialist yourself within Sanitas' network.

For a non-lucrative visa, the convenio doesn't come into it. The permit asks for a policy from an insurer authorised in Spain, and that's what Sanitas Residents for visas is for: no copays, no waiting periods, repatriation included, for new policies up to age 64. At 40, in Mallorca, it works out at €132.32 a month, billed as €793.92 every six months.

Which public hospitals are there in Mallorca?

IB-Salut lists four public hospitals in Mallorca: Son Espases and Son Llàtzer in Palma, the Hospital de Manacor and the Hospital Comarcal de Inca. Each one serves one of the island's four health sectors. Son Espases is also the reference hospital for the whole of the Balearic Islands, in IB-Salut's own words.

Which one is yours depends on your address, because your health centre belongs to a sector. IB-Salut's centre finder (buscador de centros sanitarios) tells you which health centre is yours. Private hospitals are a separate network; this guide doesn't rank them.

Where do I go in a medical emergency in Mallorca?

If it's life-threatening, call 112 or 061; 061 is IB-Salut's medical emergency service (SAMU 061). For something urgent that can't wait for your GP, primary care handles urgent cases around the clock at its urgent-care points, called PAC and SUAP. The third part of the network is the emergency department of each public hospital.

112 takes calls in English and German as well. In 2024, 6.07% of the calls the Balearic 112 answered were in English, German, French or Italian, according to the Balearic Government. For anything that isn't urgent, IB-Salut asks you to book an appointment at your health centre rather than use the emergency services.

If you have Sanitas Más Salud or Único, there's one more option before you leave the house: a 24-hour urgent video consultation with a GP or paediatrician. It has no copay, even on plans that have copays.

How long are waiting lists in Mallorca's public system?

At 31 December 2025, people in the Balearic Islands waiting for a first specialist appointment had been waiting 71 days on average, and people waiting for surgery 105 days. Both figures are below the Spanish averages of 102 and 122 days, according to the Ministry of Health's waiting-list system (SISLE-SNS).

The averages hide a spread. Of the people waiting for a first appointment, 44.4% had been waiting more than 60 days. On the surgical list, 3,832 of the 17,075 people (22.4%) had been waiting more than six months. These figures cover the whole region and every specialty, and IB-Salut also publishes daily figures by hospital on its website.

Whether 71 days matters depends on what you're waiting for and how you feel about waiting. Two months for a dermatologist is fine for some people and not for others. More than anything else, that is what decides whether you add private cover.

What doesn't public healthcare cover?

Care at health centres and hospitals is free, but prescriptions aren't: most working-age patients pay between 40% and 60% of the price, depending on income, and most pensioners 10%. Adult dental care covers acute problems, extractions and minor oral surgery. And you reach a specialist through your GP, not directly.

Those rules come from article 102 of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2015 (prescriptions) and Royal Decree 1030/2006 (dental). Children up to 14 get dental check-ups and treatment that adults don't. This is how the public system compares with Sanitas Más Salud, Sanitas' full-cover policy for residents:

The waiting periods row is the catch worth knowing about. If you've had at least a year of full cover with another insurer in Spain, Sanitas' switching offer waives them, except for childbirth and bariatric surgery (Muface, Mugeju and ISFAS don't count as another insurer). The details are in the guide to switching health insurance in Spain, and the full cover of each plan is in Más Salud and Único, line by line.

Will doctors in Mallorca speak English or German?

In the public system, don't count on it. Spanish and Catalan are the official languages of the Balearic Islands (Statute of Autonomy, article 4), and whether your GP speaks English or German depends on the doctor. With private cover you can choose: Sanitas' Mi Sanitas app is in English and lets you filter doctors by the languages they speak.

Sanitas has also had its own medical centre in Palma since November 2025, on Avinguda del Gran i General Consell, 6, a short walk from Plaça d'Espanya. It has consulting rooms, imaging, cardiology, ophthalmology, ENT, a rehabilitation centre and a dental unit.

As for me, I speak English, German, Spanish and Catalan, so we can go through your options in whichever suits you.

When is private health insurance worth it in Mallorca?

When your residence depends on it, it isn't optional: that's the non-lucrative visa and, until you can sign the convenio especial, EU residence without work or an S1. Otherwise it's a choice. If Spain covers you and you're fine with referrals and waiting lists, the public system is enough.

What private cover mainly adds is choice: you go to the specialist you pick within the insurer's network.

Here's how I'd think about it, including what you give up.

If you work here or have an S1, get your health card first and use the public system for a few months before deciding anything. If waiting for specialists is what bothers you, Más Salud with the medium copay keeps the premium lowest: €76.02 a month at 40, plus a copay each time you use it (€4 to €15 on the usual scale, €8 at A&E and €12 for complex tests). With no copay, it's €108.18. The full table by age is in the guide to health insurance costs in Mallorca.

From 60, the health questionnaire becomes the issue. Más Salud asks about your health; Sanitas Único doesn't, has no upper age limit for joining and costs €60.90 a month at 67. But hospital stays and surgery aren't in Único's published cover. If you have public healthcare through an S1, the public hospitals cover that gap. Without it, Único alone leaves you exposed on exactly the expensive part.

If you need the policy for a visa, there's nothing to weigh up: Residents for visas, up to age 64.

Now find your row in the table near the top of this page. If it says yes, apply for your health card and give the public system a few months; by then you'll know what you'd be paying private cover for. If it says no, the policy comes first, because your residence depends on it. The two-minute quiz shows you the Sanitas options for your ages, at their rate-card price.