A chronic condition does not rule out private health cover in Portugal. It changes the order things should happen in, and the timeline needs to start well before the move itself — not after arrival, when the clock that matters has not yet started ticking.
Start with the paperwork, before the move
Gather, in a form you can hand to an insurer: the current diagnosis, treatment history, medication, and a recent clinical summary from the treating doctor. A Portuguese insurer's underwriting decision is only as good as the information it is working from, and assembling this while still in contact with your existing medical team is far easier than requesting it retrospectively from abroad.
Establish the conventional route first
Before assuming the condition rules out conventional cover, find out what it actually does to an application: full decline, cover with the condition excluded, or acceptance with a loading. Insurers differ in how they treat the same condition, so this is worth testing rather than pre-judging — see declined for health cover: what is left for how each outcome is generally handled.
If the conventional route does not produce acceptable terms
A decline, a full exclusion of the condition itself, or unacceptable loading all point toward the same next step: a membership-based route such as MGEN. Acceptance there does not depend on the condition, but the trade-off is a 365-day waiting period before anything pre-existing is actually covered — see how the mechanism works.
Why the timing matters more than usual here
The 365-day clock starts from when cover actually begins, not from when the move happens or when the condition next flares up. Someone who waits until after relocating, settling in, and then discovering the conventional market will not accept the case has lost months the clock could already have been running. Starting the search — and, if the membership-based route turns out to be the answer, starting the membership — as early as realistically possible is the single highest-leverage decision in this whole process.
Disclose everything, every time
Whichever route you end up on, disclose the condition fully on every application. An insurer that discovers an undisclosed condition at claim time does not extend the benefit of the doubt, and it is the policy itself that is put at risk, not just the specific claim connected to the condition. This holds whether the condition is currently active, in remission, or being monitored without active treatment.
What we actually do
We take the clinical summary and the timeline you are working to, test the conventional route honestly, and if the membership-based route is the answer, help you start that clock as early as your own timeline allows — all of it in writing, before you commit.
Planning a move with a known condition?
Send us the clinical summary and your timeline. We'll map out the sequence in writing before you commit to anything.
Adler & Rochefort is a commercial brand of Ownizo, Unipessoal Lda., registered with the Portuguese Insurance and Pension Funds Supervisory Authority (ASF) under no. 425591790/3. General information only, not personalised or medical advice; each insurer's underwriting outcome depends on the individual application and declared history.
More on this subject: MGEN: membership-based cover without a questionnaire · Declined for health cover: what is left · Pre-existing conditions explained