Sanitas vs Asisa (Asisa Activa) for Expats in Spain: Which Is Better in 2026?

Both are Spanish insurers authorised by the DGSFP and both issue policies that consulates and immigration offices accept, so the brand is not the deciding factor — the policy conditions are. What the file needs is a certificate stating no copays, no waiting periods, cover across the whole Spanish territory and cover equivalent to the public system's. Where offices differ is in turnaround and language: we guarantee the certificate within 24 hours, in English or Spanish, plus the paid-premium receipt for the products where immigration requires the year paid up front. If you already have an Asisa quote, send us the conditions and we will check them against your consulate's published checklist free of charge, because a rejected application costs months and it is almost always a preventable detail.

It is genuinely comparable, and this is the row where Asisa is strongest — HLA is a real hospital group owned by Asisa with a solid presence in the Madrid region, so the argument that only Sanitas has its own hospitals is not accurate. The practical difference is which specific hospitals sit near your address and which specialties they cover: Sanitas has La Zarzuela in Aravaca and La Moraleja in the north of Madrid, both university hospitals; HLA has its own network with different locations. If you are moving to a specific neighbourhood, the honest way to decide is to look up both networks on a map for your postcode rather than compare brand claims — we will do that with you even if the answer favours them.

Both include basic dental as standard, which is unusual and worth noting, so the difference is in scale and in what an upgrade buys you. Sanitas backs its dental with 200 owned clinics and lets you upgrade to Dental Milenium at €12.90 a month for adults or €9.90 for under-15s, or Dental Premium at €20.00, with more than 40 treatments included at no extra cost and reduced fees on complex work like orthodontics or implants. Asisa includes dental in Asisa Activa through its own contracted network. If dental is a priority — braces for a teenager, implants — compare the specific treatment list and the co-payment schedule of each, not just whether dental is 'included'.

With Sanitas we can give you the exact figure because we work from the official April 2026 rate card: €74.81 a month in the high-copay tier (Óptima), €86.88 in the low-copay tier and €116.82 with no copays at all, plus 5-8% family discount and a further 4% for paying annually. For Asisa we can only quote the public market range of roughly €45-55 a month, because we have no access to their rate card. Two things to keep in mind when comparing: make sure you are pricing the same copay level on both sides, and remember that the cheapest monthly premium is not the cheapest year if you use the insurance often, because that is exactly what copays change.

Normally yes. If you present a certificate from Asisa showing how long you were insured, Sanitas can waive the waiting periods that would otherwise apply — 6 months for hospitalisation and complex tests, 8 months for childbirth — so you are not exposed during the change. The part that matters most is sequencing: the new policy must be in force before the old one lapses, with no gap at all, which is critical if you have a TIE or residency renewal coming up, because continuous cover is exactly what immigration checks. Bring us the Asisa certificate and your renewal date and we handle the overlap.