Your European Health Insurance Card stops working the day you move, not the day it expires. That single misunderstanding is the most expensive one people make when they settle here, and it is the reason this guide starts where it does.

There are five routes into publicly funded healthcare in the Comunitat Valenciana, and most people reading this will be covered within weeks of arriving at no monthly cost at all. This guide finds your route, tells you what to take and in what order, and prices the paid scheme properly, including the part that is not covered and catches people out.

Every figure is tied to the decree, the Social Security form or the Conselleria page it came from. Where two official sources disagree, we say which one we followed and why.