Health insurance for a student under 18 going to Spain
If your son, daughter or grandchild is 14 to 17 and heading to Spain to study, they can be insured on the Sanitas International Students plan. What changes below 18 is not the cover — it is who holds the contract. This page is written for the adult who will sign it.
Yes from 14 — but the policy is in your name, not theirs
The Sanitas International Students plan insures students from age 14. Where the student is under 18, an adult aged 18 or over — a parent, legal guardian or grandparent — takes the policy out, signs it, and is the person the insurer contracts with. The student is named on the policy as the person insured. Two names, two different roles, one policy.
The Spanish paperwork uses two words for this that are worth recognising when you see them: the adult is the tomador (policyholder) and the student is the asegurado (person insured).
The relationship you give forms part of the contract, so it should reflect the real position rather than the most convenient box — legal guardian belongs to someone who actually holds guardianship, not to a family friend acting as a host.
Everything else about applying is the same as it is for an adult student. The online application detects the age from the student's date of birth and opens the policyholder section for you. How the application works sets out the full process, documents and timings; this page covers only what is different because the student is a minor.
What you need to hand — yours as well as theirs
The usual reason a family application stalls is that the adult's details were not expected. Gather both sets before you start.
- The student's passport or NIE — a clear photo or PDF of the main page. A Spanish DNI is not valid for this plan.
- Your passport or NIE — as policyholder, your identity details go on the application alongside the student's.
- Proof of studies — a matriculation or enrolment certificate from the Spanish school, college or university, showing the course start and end dates.
- An address in Spain — the school's or host institution's address is fine if accommodation is not settled yet.
- Contact details and payment — email, phone and payment method sit with you as policyholder, not with the student.
- Both names exactly as printed — as they appear in the passports, accents and second surnames included.
What "proof of studies" means when it is a school, not a university
Proof of studies is required to contract the policy. It is not optional and it cannot follow on afterwards, which surprises families who expected to arrange insurance first and paperwork later.
For a university student that document is normally a matriculation certificate. For a 14 to 17 year old it comes from a secondary school, a sixth form, a language school or an exchange programme instead, and it may be called an enrolment letter, an acceptance letter or a confirmation of place. The title on the document is not what matters.
What matters is what it evidences: the institution in Spain, the student's name, and the start and end dates of the course. A letter confirming a place but showing no dates is the one that causes delays, because the insured period is set from those dates — and the same dates are what a consulate reads across your child's whole visa file. If the school's letter is missing them, ask for one that shows them before you begin. That single fix prevents most stalled applications.
High-school exchanges, and the dates that decide everything
A school-year exchange fits the shape of this plan. The policy runs for 3 to 14 months and is renewable, and a Spanish academic year sits comfortably inside that; a student of 15, 16 or 17 sits inside the age band. Nothing about the plan distinguishes a secondary school from a university — it asks the same questions of both. One route rule sits upstream of the insurance, though: under Real Decreto 1155/2024, a child still at compulsory stage (ESO) can study in Spain only through a recognised pupil-mobility programme, while post-compulsory study (bachillerato, FP grado medio) also has an independent-enrolment route — the high-school exchange page reads both letters verbatim and explains which door your child's age opens.
Two date rules are worth knowing before you choose a start month. Stays of more than 90 days are the ones that go down the student visa route (Real Decreto 1155/2024, article 52.1) — a placement of a few weeks is a different situation altogether. And where a student authorisation is granted, it runs from one month before the course starts to fifteen days after it ends (article 55.2), while Sanitas policies begin on the 1st of a month and can be contracted up to six months ahead. Those two calendars have to be lined up deliberately rather than assumed.
Consulates differ on how long a policy they want to see, and some set it from the length of the stay rather than the length of the course. Check the current list published by the consulate your child will apply through — what consulates check explains the requirement and where practice varies between posts.
What a minor is never asked to agree to
No marketing consent is ever attributed to the student. Consents and contact details belong to the adult policyholder. That is a deliberate design decision in the application, not a setting to be toggled, and it is why the email address and phone number on the policy are yours.
The student's health information is used to assess and administer the policy. Answer the health questions about the student honestly and declare anything significant: pre-existing conditions are subject to review at application rather than automatically covered or automatically excluded. Eligibility, premium and policy terms are confirmed before the policy is issued, so you will know the outcome before you are committed. Our privacy policy sets out how personal and health data is handled, including for students under 18.
One thing to know before you buy rather than after: paediatric care is not part of this plan — it covers ages 14 to 35. What the plan covers sets out the cover and the exclusions in full.
Under 14 sits outside this plan entirely
There is no version of this policy for a child of 12 or 13, and no supplement that reaches down to them. Younger children are covered through family arrangements instead, which are reviewed individually rather than priced from the student rate table.
Age is measured at the date the policy starts, not the date you apply. A student who turns 14 before the start date is inside the plan even if they are 13 while you are filling the form in — worth checking against a birthday that falls close to the start of the course. Check if you qualify runs through the age, course-length and document conditions in about a minute.
See the price before you commit to anything
Enter the student's date of birth, the province they will study in and the course length. The calculator shows the exact monthly premium and the total for the whole insured period — the youngest age band is the lowest-priced.
Insuring a student under 18 — parents' questions
Eligibility, premium and policy terms are confirmed before the policy is issued. The visa decision itself rests with the Spanish consulate or immigration authorities.