Insurance in Spain for expats — health, home, car and travel coverage, what the NLV requires and how Spanish policies differ from US equivalents.
If you've traveled to Europe, you've probably noticed persianas on a lot of apartment and home windows. In the US, there's really nothing similar on residential homes. A persiana is a roller shutter that lives in a box above the window frame. It rolls down to fully cover the glass. Spaniards use them every day, and once you understand why, you'll wonder how you ever lived without them.
As we were just renewing our auto, home and umbrella liability insurance policies for the remaining months we have in the states, we wondered should we keep our US liability insurance after moving to Spain? After we did our research it appears for us and most people the answer is no. Not because it stops being useful, but because it stops working the way you'd expect long before you'd think to cancel it.
Spain drives on the right side of the road, just like the US. That's one less thing you'll have to worry about when driving in Spain. Everything else takes getting used to. A few US driving habits are worth erasing from your memory since holding onto them here, is a fast way to earn a ticket. The rules, the customs and even the road types work differently in Spain. A few of them may surprise you the first time you run into them.
Watch two restaurant terraces on the same village street for an afternoon and you'll see it. One server greets a dog with a water bowl already in hand, the next points at a non-existent sign and shrugs. Both reactions are common and both come from the same source. A law that changed the rules in 2023 without notifying the businesses affected by it. That inconsistency is the whole story of dogs in shops, restaurants and beaches in Spain. This post will save you an awkward moment or two once you're settled in Spain.
If you’re moving to Spain (or the EU for that matter), one thing that often causes confusion is what to do about US prescriptions. The most important thing to know is that US prescriptions can’t be transferred to Spain.