Related guide: Switching health insurance before January: the calendar
Buying Online or Through the Office: What Changes at Each Stage of the Policy
A health policy takes twenty minutes to buy and is used for years. That is why it makes no sense to compare only the day of enrollment: you have to look at what happens at each stage, from the price to the renewal. And where buying online serves you exactly as well, we say so.
The price is the same, and it is worth knowing why
Let us start with what worries people most. Sanitas sets its official price according to age, postcode and plan, and that price is identical across all its channels: the company’s website, the phone or an exclusive agent like our Majadahonda office. The agent’s remuneration is part of the agreement between the agent and Sanitas; it is not added to the client’s premium. If anyone tells you that with them you pay more or less for the same Sanitas policy, ask to see the application: the premium shown there is the official one.
What the office adds is not a different price, it is judgment. On the same budget, a couple aged 34 and 36 can go for Más Salud with no copays, Plus with a low copay or Óptima with a high copay, and the difference in premium between the three is real; the number of insured people or the effective date can also change, and the price with them. That ten-minute conversation, about which plan fits how you are going to use the insurance, is one a website does not have.
Choosing the product: when the product sheet is not enough
Online you compare product sheets and choose. And it works well in one specific case: you are young, you have no medical history, you are not coming from another insurer and you know exactly which plan you want. There, online enrollment does the job and you will not notice the difference in the first year.
The problem is that most people are not in that case. They have a coverage question, a child with an ongoing treatment, an age that brushes against a product’s enrollment limit or a budget that forces a choice between copay and no copay. With the office you get two options with the reason for each one, based on your age, your budget, whether you accept copays and whether you need hospitalization, and we point out in advance the waiting period or the copay you will notice with the first one. It is the difference between choosing and being helped to choose.
The health questionnaire: where a person is worth more than a form
It is the part of enrollment that gets the least attention and has the most consequences. On your own, you fill it in as best you can: a question you do not fully understand, a past condition you are not sure counts, an omission by oversight. And an omission in the questionnaire can leave exactly what matters most to you uncovered on the day you need it.
With the office we go through it with you question by question, with two rules: hide nothing and declare nothing more than necessary. The first protects your cover; the second avoids unnecessary exclusions. It is half an hour of conversation, by video call or in person, and it is where an experienced person adds the most value in the whole process.
Waiting periods if you come from another insurer
Here is one of the biggest practical differences. Signing up on your own, the product’s waiting periods apply, ten months for hospitalization in the case of Más Salud, unless you know that the waiver of waiting periods for clients coming from another insurer exists and you expressly request it with your previous policy.
We request it in the enrollment application itself, attaching your current policy, and we confirm to you in writing what Sanitas has accepted before you cancel the other company. The order matters: first Sanitas’s acceptance, then the cancellation of the old policy. That way you are never left without insurance along the way, and you never discover a waiting period when there is no going back. The waiver is a Sanitas underwriting policy and the company decides, but requesting it properly and on time is the agent’s job.
After enrollment: who picks up the phone
Buying online, what comes afterwards is handled through Sanitas’s customer service phone line and the Mi Sanitas app: adding a child, changing plan, asking whether something is covered. It works, but each time a different person speaks to you and starts from zero.
With the office, the same person as always handles it, by WhatsApp, by phone or at Calle Santiago Apóstol, in eight languages. The child born in March, the change of bank account, the duplicate card, the authorization for a test that gets stuck, the claim that has to be filed with the clause in hand. In a normal year a client writes to us three or four times about things like these, and it is where having someone with a first name and surname makes the biggest difference.
Renewal: deciding with someone in front of you
Every autumn the renewal notice arrives with next year’s premium. Anyone who signed up alone reads it alone and decides alone, often with the number going up as their only reference.
With the office we go through it before it falls due: whether the plan is still the right one for how you have used the insurance, whether the family has changed, whether it is worth adjusting the copay or the number of insured people, and what alternatives there are within Sanitas. Sometimes the answer is to change nothing; other times, switching plan saves you money or adds the cover you were missing. Either way you decide with information, not with a figure in a letter.
Visas and immigration: the certificate each consulate asks for
If you need the insurance for a visa, the NIE or an arraigo application, the certificate matters as much as the policy. Through the general channels you get a certificate with the standard wording, and the consulate or the immigration office often asks for something more specific: that it states the absence of copays and waiting periods, cover equivalent to the public health system or a particular format.
We issue the certificate in under 24 hours, with the wording each consulate or immigration office asks for, and in the language you need. We work in eight languages and have spent years processing policies for non-lucrative residency, studies, family reunification and arraigo, so we know which sentence is missing before it gets rejected.
ANYO HEALTH SL is an exclusive agent of Sanitas, S.A. de Seguros (Bupa Group), registered with the Directorate-General for Insurance and Pension Funds under key C0320B67816207. An exclusive agent works with a single company: it applies that company’s official price and does not charge the client for the intermediation. Waiving waiting periods for clients coming from another insurer is a Sanitas underwriting policy: it is requested at enrollment and decided by the company. Sanitas is a registered trademark of Sanitas, S.A. de Seguros.
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Common questions
Direct answers, the same we give at the office.
Does signing up with an exclusive agent cost more than doing it online?
No. The price of a Sanitas policy is set by Sanitas, and it is the same across all its channels for the same age, the same postcode and the same plan. The exclusive agent’s remuneration is part of the agreement between the agent and the company; it is not added to your premium. If anyone tells you that with them you pay more or less for the same Sanitas policy, ask to see the application: the premium shown there is the official one.
What exactly is an exclusive agent, and how is it different from a broker?
An exclusive agent works for a single company, in our case Sanitas, and is registered with the Directorate-General for Insurance and Pension Funds, Spain’s insurance regulator. A broker works with several companies and proposes options from among them. The advantage of the exclusive agent is deep knowledge of the product, direct processing with the company and support after enrollment; the limitation is that we will only ever offer you Sanitas. That is why, when Sanitas does not fit what you need, we tell you so and sell you nothing.
Can I sign up with you if I do not live in Majadahonda?
Yes. We serve all of Spain remotely: a quote from the calculator, the application signed as a PDF or through the app, the health questionnaire by video call or phone and follow-up by WhatsApp. Most of our clients outside Madrid have never set foot in the office. What is the same for everyone is the person you deal with: the same one from the quote to the renewal.
I already have Sanitas, bought online. Can I move to the office?
You can contact us all the same for questions, adding family members and new policies, and we will look after you like any other client. Whether a policy already in force can be moved to be managed from the office depends on Sanitas and is looked at case by case, so we do not promise anything before checking: write to us with your policy number and we will tell you what is possible.
What happens to my policy if the office changes hands or closes?
Nothing. The contract is between you and Sanitas, S.A. de Seguros; the office is the intermediary that looks after you, not the company that insures you. Your policy, your cover and your seniority do not depend on us. It is a question we welcome, because it is worth having clear before signing with any intermediary.
When does it make sense to buy online with nobody behind you?
When you are young, have nothing in your medical history to declare, are not coming from another insurer and know exactly which plan you want. In that case online enrollment works well and you will not notice the difference in the first year. The difference shows up with the first unexpected event: an authorization that gets stuck, a child that is born, a job change that makes you self-employed or a renewal with a premium you do not understand. That is where having someone with a first name and surname saves time and money.
Will you help me with claims against Sanitas even if it is awkward for you?
Yes, and it is part of the job. If Sanitas turns down an authorization or a test, we review the terms and conditions with you, tell you whether the claim has grounds and file it through the appropriate channel. If it does not, we tell you that too, with the clause in front of us. An agent who only delivers good news is no use when the bad news arrives.