Healthcare Question (Again)

Hi David

I can share our experience with you. My husband is an EU citizen. I am South African. I know that Americans have it a bit easier than we do with this process, but can't give you the full info on that - others here will be able to give personal experience info for your wife.

The process as EU citizen as follows:
- On arrival, apply immediately for NIF (number, not a card) at your local Finance office. For this, you initially have to give proof of residence in your country of origin. You can get your NIF immediately, no waiting process.
- Once you have a NIF, you can open a local bank account with passport, NIF, proof of residence and proof of employment. Activo is geared towards foreigners; has no fees; is online; English-speaking staff; open until 20h00; also has an app. 250 euro required to open your account if you're non-EU and/or have no employment. 
- After 3 months here, you are required to register your intention to stay. Go to your local CLAII office (Local Immigrant Support Center) - much easier and quicker than SEF or CNAI. You need your passport, with proof of entry into the country (so they can establish how many months you've been here) and proof of residence here. We used our short-term booking (6 months) form. Pay 15 euro. My husband's residence card was issued to him the next week. I can tell you that once you have that, it opens many doors!
- Take your residence "card" (it's actually an embossed piece of paper), passport and NIF to your local Segurança Social office to obtain your NISS (Numero Indentificaçao de Segurança Social). We got ours within a week when we went on our own. (My husband's company applied for him and 6 months later he still wasn't registered!) Your wife can piggyback on your residence card for NIF, NISS, bank account and Health Centre.
- Take your residence "card", passport, NIF and NISS to your local Health Centre (Centro de Saude) and ask to be registered. You should receive that registration paper while you wait. I'm told they assign you a family doctor, but we've seen 3 different docs so far. It costs you 4.50 euro for a consultation - but be prepared to wait for HOURS. I'm a diabetic and my consults are free, and so are all of my chronic meds.

One last thing, on the issue of not spending hundreds of dollars/euros on private healthcare. My husband has health insurance through his company and has recently become very ill. A specialist wanted to admit him to a private clinic, and even with the hospital authorization from the health insurance company, we were required to pay 500 euro upfront (plus a minimum 10% - 20% co-pay on all tests and procedures). Unheard of In South Africa if you have decent medical insurance. We ended up at the public teaching hospital Santa Maria. The process is very drawn out; LOTS of waiting; you get kind of lost in the system, especially not speaking the language, but he's had endless tests and specialist consults which I know would have cost us thousands of euros by now... They have also managed to pick up that he might have a very rare disease -and I'm not 100% confident that would have happened in a private hospital.

Hope this all helps!

Regards
Janine