Concept
ASISA — the legal entity Asistencia Sanitaria Interprovincial de Seguros, S.A.U. — is a Spanish health insurer authorised and supervised by the DGSFP, the national insurance regulator. It works on a service model: rather than reimbursing bills, it gives direct access to its own network of doctors and clinics. For relocation the relevant product is ASISA Salud, a full private policy that meets the medical-cover condition for Spanish residence permits, including the Digital Nomad Visa.
🍓 In a residence file an ASISA policy does one job: it proves medical cover equivalent to the Spanish public system. It is not evidence of income, and it says nothing about the holder's tax residency.
Why the visa asks for a policy like this
The international-teleworker route was created by Ley 28/2022 and is decided centrally by the UGE-CE, the migration unit for large companies and strategic groups, normally within about twenty working days. The first authorisation runs for up to three years. One of its conditions is health cover for the entire stay, and the law accepts two different ways to satisfy it.
The first way is full private insurance with a company authorised to operate in Spain. The second is enrolment in the Spanish Social Security system, or a certificate of cover if the applicant's home country has a bilateral social-security agreement with Spain. ASISA sits on the private-insurance side, next to providers such as DKV, Adeslas and Sanitas.
What UGE Requires from an Insurance Policy
Unidad de Grandes Empresas y Colectivos Estratégicos (UGE) requires:
- Medical coverage for the entire period of the permit;
- Coverage comparable to the Spanish national healthcare system;
- Without significant co-payments and waiting periods;
- A policy for each applicant and family members in the immigration file.
UGE explicitly states that the following are not accepted:
- travel insurance;
- reimbursement-only policies;
- policies with significant co-payments or waiting periods.
A deductible works like a co-payment and has the same effect on the file. The authorisation point is the one applicants underestimate: a policy written by a home-country insurer is refused even where it lists Spain as covered territory, because the test is a contract with a carrier on the DGSFP register, not the geography of the cover. Relocation therefore normally begins with a fresh Spanish policy rather than an existing international one. The investment route no longer offers a way round this — Ley Orgánica 1/2025 repealed arts. 63 to 67 of Ley 14/2013 and the golden visa closed on 3 April 2025 — so every remaining residence permit turns on proven medical cover.
The document the file actually rests on is the certificate. It names the insurer and its Spanish authorisation, identifies each insured person, states that the cover is full — sin copagos, sin carencias — and gives the validity dates; a generic proof-of-insurance letter does not clear it. ASISA generates it as a PDF in the personal account once the policy is active, and an electronic copy is accepted. Renewal is decided on the same no-gap condition, so the renewal certificate is kept alongside the original.
ASISA as a Provider
ASISA has operated since 1971 and is one of the largest health insurers in Spain, with roughly 2.9 million policyholders. It is owned by Lavinia, a cooperative of more than ten thousand doctors, so the clinicians who deliver the care also own the company. It is a long-standing provider for the civil-servant mutual funds — MUFACE, ISFAS and MUGEJU — which shows how the public sector and the regulator regard it.
The defining feature is the service model. The patient goes to a clinic in the ASISA network, shows the policy, and the insurer settles directly: no paying upfront, no claim forms, no waiting for a refund. The trade-off is that care happens inside the network, so its quality where the patient actually lives matters more than the headline premium.
In practice the network is what is being bought. ASISA runs one of the widest private medical networks in the country — over a thousand hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres and tens of thousands of practitioners — but its density varies by region, which is exactly what the checklist below is for.
What to Check in the Policy
- Composition of insured persons—correspondence with the family composition in the immigration file;
- Validity period—coverage for the permit period;
- Coverage—sin copagos, sin carencia (no co-payments, no waiting periods);
- Medical network—which clinics are available in the region of residence;
- Territory—Spain and preferably EU.
Registration and Access to Services
ASISA provides an app and a personal account for using the policy: booking appointments in person or by video consultation, holding the digital policy card, reaching the medical history and electronic prescriptions, requesting authorisations for procedures, and contacting the insurer. For the residence file itself only the certificate is needed; the app matters later, once the holder starts using the cover.
Registration runs either inside the app or through the registration page on the insurer's website, and one account serves both. It asks for the policy number, a DNI, NIE, TIE or passport, a mobile number and an email address: the policy number ties the account to live cover, the identity document identifies the insured person, and the phone and email carry the confirmation code and the password reset. The fields vary by app version and product.
Where registration will not complete, the usual causes are the control letter of the NIE or TIE, a policy number that does not match the certificate, or contact details held by the insurer that are out of date — which is why a confirmation code fails to arrive far more often than the policy is at fault. Those details are corrected with the insurer, or through the broker who placed the cover; a new policy is not required. None of it delays the immigration filing, which the certificate carries on its own.
Where ASISA Is Suitable
- applicants for Digital Nomad Visa and their family members;
- families with children, especially if there is a convenient ASISA clinic in the region of residence;
- Spanish residence permit programs requiring medical coverage.
Where It's Not Suitable / What to Pay Attention To
- if there is no good clinic in the ASISA network in the region of residence—DKV or another provider with a wider network may be more convenient;
- copago or carencia in the policy—UGE may refuse;
- if the applicant will be enrolled in Spanish Social Security — usually autónomos under RETA — a private policy is no longer mandatory for the file, so buying one may be unnecessary, though some applicants still keep ASISA for faster private access.
ASISA, DKV or another provider
Among service-model insurers the realistic shortlist is ASISA, DKV, Adeslas and Sanitas. All of them issue policies the UGE accepts once they are written sin copagos and sin carencias, so the certificate rarely decides anything. The network does: which insurer has the clinics and specialists the applicant wants near home, and whose app is less irritating. ASISA is strongest around its own hospitals; in a city where a competitor is denser, that competitor wins on convenience even when the paperwork looks identical.
Bottom line
ASISA is a solid, regulator-friendly way to meet the health condition of the Spanish teleworker permit, as long as two things hold: the policy is issued sin copagos and sin carencias for the full period, and the network is genuinely good where the applicant will live. Before buying, settle the prior question — whether private cover is needed at all, or whether Social Security enrolment will carry the file.
Q/A
Does every Spanish digital-nomad applicant need a private ASISA policy?
No. Official consular guidance accepts proof of coverage under Spain’s public Social Security system, including an applicable bilateral certificate, where the applicant is covered. Otherwise, private health insurance meeting the immigration standard is required; ASISA is one possible provider, not the legal requirement itself.
Can the policy include co-payments, deductibles or waiting periods?
It should not. Official telework-visa guidance requires cover equivalent to Spain’s public health system, without co-payments, coverage limits or waiting periods. Check the immigration certificate and full policy wording, not only the product name, because a consumer plan can differ from the certificate used for the application.
Will foreign international or travel insurance be accepted?
Travel insurance is not accepted for this purpose. A private insurer must be authorised to operate in Spain and the policy must cover the risks insured by the Spanish public system for the required period. A global brand or an English-language certificate alone does not establish compliance with those conditions.
Is the insurer’s certificate enough if the app or digital card does not work?
For immigration, the certificate and policy terms are the relevant evidence; an app is an operational access tool. Keep the signed certificate, proof of payment and policy schedule available. Separately resolve any card, app or provider-directory problem before treatment, because it may affect practical access even when the immigration evidence is valid.
Should the decision be based only on whether ASISA is accepted by immigration?
No. First confirm that the exact policy and certificate meet the official coverage test. Then compare the provider network in the places where the family will live, direct billing, exclusions, language support and renewal terms. Health insurance also does not replace the application’s income, employment or tax evidence.