You can use public healthcare in Catalonia without residence papers.

Real Decreto 180/2026 came into force on 13 March 2026 and set one procedure for everyone in Spain without legal residence. You apply at your CAP.

What you give them

Who you are. Your passport, or your country’s official identity document. If you have neither, any document from your country’s authorities with a photograph on it. For a child with no passport: a birth certificate, a family book, or guardianship papers.

That you live here. A current padrón certificate — with no minimum period. If you cannot get one, any one of these is accepted instead:

1. Enrolment certificate from a public or state-assisted school or college
2. School certificate for a child in your care
3. A travel document issued by your consulate
4. A record-of-visits certificate from a local or regional social service — or from a registered social worker at an NGO recognised as being of public benefit
5. Electricity, gas, water, phone or internet bills in your name
6. A cédula de inscripción from the National Police, or a public prosecutor’s age determination
7. Consular registration document
8. A certificate from a centre in the public migration-centre network

A signed declaration (declaración responsable, the form is in the decree): that you are not required to hold medical insurance, have no public health cover any other way, cannot bring health cover across from another country, and that no third party has to pay for you.

Then

• A decision within three months.
• If nobody answers in time, it counts as approved.
• If they refuse, they cannot bill you for care already given, as long as you later show you met the requirements.
• The document does not expire.
• If you move to another Spanish region you do not apply again, and no earlier care is billed.

If you already work here

A Spanish work contract, a pension or a Social Security benefit means your right is already recognised through the INSS. None of the above applies to you. Ask for the card directly.

Emergency care, whatever your situation

Catalan law gives everyone in Catalonia the right to urgent care, whatever the cause, and to keep receiving it until you are discharged. It can be billed unless you show you cannot pay, in which case CatSalut covers it. Never stay at home with an emergency because of papers.

NEEDS HUMAN VERIFICATIONThis section needs checking with CatSalut or SAIER before it is treated as settled practice. The law is verified — read article by article in the BOE’s own text. How Barcelona CAPs are applying it is not: CatSalut has published no implementing instruction for the decree.

The same article also covers people applying for international protection or statelessness, from the day they apply; people under temporary protection; victims of gender violence and their children; victims of trafficking; victims of sexual violence; women seeking to end a pregnancy; and anyone with a notifiable disease.

Where to go

Your CAP. Ask for ASSIR — atenció a la salut sexual i reproductiva. The team is midwives, gynaecologists, nurses and psychologists. They run pregnancy monitoring and risk assessment, scans and blood tests, prenatal screening, antenatal classes, postpartum care, contraception and pregnancy termination, cervical screening for women 25 to 65, breast screening for women 50 to 69, STI testing and treatment, and support around violence against women.

For a baby: register the baby with the INSS as your beneficiary first — the hospital can do this if you agree — then apply for the baby’s health card.

Where

In person at the CAP for your address — or a CAP you have chosen — or online through CatSalut’s form.

What to bring to the CAP

• An identity document: DNI, NIE or passport.
• A padrón certificate issued less than three months ago. This is about how old the certificate is, not how long you have been registered. Some town halls can be checked online instead. How the padrón works →
• If you are applying for someone else, proof that you may act for them.

Also worth knowing

• Which CAP is mine? Use CatSalut’s centre finder, or call 061.
• Coming back after time abroad? You apply again as if it were the first time.

Our short answer on the health card →

At the health centre and the hospital: nothing. With a health card or the provisional document, general coverage pays in full for primary care, specialist care, urgent care, mental health care, hospital care, ambulance transport, rehabilitation, and public-health programmes including pregnancy care and children’s vaccinations.

Prescriptions

The rules changed on 14 May 2026. You pay a share of the price at the pharmacy, and most people have a monthly ceiling.

Some people pay nothing at all

People on the ingreso mínimo vital; on a non-contributory pension; on a minimum-insertion income, which in Catalonia is the Renda Garantida de Ciutadania; people who have lost unemployment benefit and are still unemployed; people being treated for a work accident or an occupational illness; and children with a recognised disability of 33% or more.

If you have no card at all

Emergency treatment can be billed — unless you show you cannot pay, or you later prove you met the requirements for cover. Apply for cover as soon as you can, and keep the bill.

What it does

• Book and see your CAP appointments
• eConsulta — send a message to your health team
• Test and scan results, medical reports and diagnoses
• Your current medication plan
• Your vaccination record
• Surgical waiting-list information, and your advance-directives document

Getting in

You must be 16 or over, have a health card, and have one accepted digital identity:

• idCAT Mòbil — free, for anyone 16 or over. Online with your identity document and your health card number, or in person at an Oficina d’Atenció Ciutadana with your identity document and a mobile number. The in-person route is the reliable one if you have no DNI or TIE.
• A digital certificate or DNIe — website only, not the app.
• A password from your CAP — ask in person with your health card and your DNI, NIE or passport. You give an email address and a mobile number for the SMS codes.

Parents and guardians ask at the CAP, in person, for access to a child’s profile. Between 16 and 18 the young person has to agree.

• The interpreting service exists to solve language problems in consultations with patients from other countries — so it is worth asking staff at a CAP or a hospital to call 061 for a Tagalog interpreter.Unverified: CatSalut’s page describes the service from the caller’s side and gives no procedure for staff. Ask for it; do not count on it.
• 112 does not list Tagalog, but operators answer in English. Open with “Inglés, por favor.” Give the address before anything else.
• Staff must help you apply. Real Decreto 180/2026 says health and social services have to inform and assist with the application, and names people who do not speak Spanish or Catalan as the ones who most need it.
• Deaf callers can reach 061 through sign-language video interpreting in the 061 app. The 024 line has a sign-language video route and an online chat.

Word-for-word phrases for reception, the doctor and the pharmacy are in the health and emergency phrasebook.

Your CAP team

A family doctor from 15 years old, a paediatrician for children up to 15, nurses, a dentist and a social worker. Everything else in the system is reached by referral from your CAP — except 061 and urgent care, which you can go to directly.

Dental — the gap

The CAP dental team does preventive and community dentistry, conservative treatment of permanent teeth in children, extractions and minor oral surgery. It is organised around pregnant women, people with diabetes, children at high risk of decay, and adults at risk of oral cancer. Routine fillings, crowns, root canals and dentures for adults are generally not covered. A 2020 Catalan law widens what the public system offers, and dental hygienists are joining CAP teams as it rolls out — so ask your CAP what is available now rather than assuming.

Mental health — fully covered

Your CAP handles anxiety and depression and can refer you on: a CSMA for adults over 18, a CSMIJ for under-18s. Many CAPs also have an emotional wellbeing worker you can see without a referral.

• 024 — free, 24 hours, every day, confidential. For anyone with suicidal thoughts, and for their family and friends. Answered in Spanish; there is also an online chat and a sign-language video route.
• SAPPIR, at Pere Claver in Poble-sec, is a specialist mental-health service for migrants and refugees, working on migratory grief and Ulysses syndrome. Appointments on 93 442 30 00; Tuesday 9–19, Wednesday 9–14, Thursday 9–16; C. Vila i Vilà 16, 08004 Barcelona. Ask about cost and whether you need a referral when you call.Unverified: the service’s page gives hours and a phone number and says nothing about cost or whether it is publicly funded.

Sexual and reproductive health

ASSIR, through your CAP — see Pregnancy, birth and children.

Vaccinations and children

Vaccinations are part of the public-health programmes and are covered even at the minimum level of coverage: children’s vaccination is included for anyone on the padró. Paediatrics at your CAP covers check-ups, illness, vaccination and prevention up to 15.

You do not carry a paper prescription. The pharmacy reads your prescription from your health card, and you pay your share — see What it costs.

To find a pharmacy open right now in Barcelona city or province, use FarmaGuia, the real-time locator run by the Barcelona pharmacists’ association and linked from CatSalut. It also shows hospitals and CAPs near you, and there is a free app.

• Your CAP is set by your address. You can ask to change your family doctor, paediatrician or nurse — inside your own centre or at another one — under lliure elecció. There are limits: some services will still come from the CAP for your address.
• Lost or damaged card: ask your CAP for a re-issue. The old card stops working.
• Wrong details on the card: tell your CAP, or call 061. If the mistake affects your surname, sex or date of birth, a new card is sent free.
• You moved: tell your CAP, or call 061. Your CAP, doctor and paediatrician may change. A change of address does not mean a new card.
• You moved to another Spanish region: you do not apply again, and no earlier care is billed.

1. Start at the centre. Every centre has a patient services desk. This is the most direct route and often the fastest.
2. Or go to CatSalut — through your health region, or its online complaint form.
3. The deadlines: they must contact you within 15 days, and give a final answer within three months. Claims about harm from treatment can take up to six months.
4. If you were refused a card, get the refusal in writing — every decision has to be notified to you — then complain with that document.
5. If CatSalut does not resolve it, the Síndic de Greuges is the next step.Unverified: we have not confirmed the Síndic’s health-complaints route. Check it before relying on this step.