Spain’s Socialist government has announced the expansion of free healthcare to illegal migrants.
Migration minister Elma Saiz confirmed that the new measure will, for the first time, guarantee medical care to foreign nationals residing in Spain without legal status.
The decree also covers Spanish citizens returning from abroad, temporary visitors, and their accompanying family members. Approved by royal decree, the plan bypasses parliament, where Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s coalition lacks a majority.
The government had already introduced a separate initiative in January to grant residency and work permits to around 500,000 illegal migrants.
Eligibility for healthcare under the new measure is limited to those who arrived in Spain before December 31st, 2025, have lived in the country for at least five months, and have no criminal record. Sánchez justified the policy by citing labor shortages and the need to counterbalance an aging population.
The expansion has drawn criticism from Spain’s political right, who argue that granting healthcare and residency rights to illegal migrants will encourage further illegal migration.
Santiago Abascal, leader of the right-wing VOX party, criticized the policy, saying:
It will be easier for illegals to have quick and better access to healthcare than for Spaniards when they change autonomous communities. And all that in a context where there is a shortage of doctors and healthcare workers, where there are waiting lists, and in which those young people who have trained as doctors or nurses have to leave Spain.
