Access to healthcare for migrants in Portugal  Healthcare is universal in Portugal. The public service, the National Healthcare Service ("Serviço Nacional de Saúde", or SNS), is accessible to all people, albeit with different billing conditions. From November 3, 2019 many more people will be entitled to become SNS beneficiaries (basically, everyone who resides in Portugal, including people with irregular residence status; incarcerated people; holders of temporary stay visas...). It's not yet clear which procedures will be adopted, nor when, for services to implement the new law. The Constitution of the Portuguese Republic states, on its section 64, paragraph 3, item a), that ""in order to ensure the right to health protection, it is primarily the responsibility of the State to ensure that all citizens, irrespective of their economic condition, have access to preventive, curative and rehabilitative care"". Portugal's Basic Health Law (Law 48/90) states on its Base II, paragraph 1, item b), that ""it is a fundamental objective to achieve equality of citizens in access to health care, irrespective of their economic condition and wherever they live"". Law 93/2017 – that establishes the legal system for the prevention, prohibition and combating of discrimination on the basis of racial and ethnic origin, color, nationality, ancestry and territory of origin – states that discriminatory actions include ""the refusal or limitation of access to health care provided in public or private health facilities"" (section 4, paragraph 2, item e)). Access to public healthcare services cannot, thus, be denied, and especially not by clerks and administrative personnel – even to people who decline to pay expenses bills –, for they aren't neither trained nor mandated to perform triage. There are two types of payments: fees and expenses. Fees ("taxas moderadoras") are symbolic values charged to SNS beneficiaries (people with an SNS beneficiary number, or "numero de utente") and to people who are entitled to being billed in the same conditions in certain situations (holders of documents that confer them such right – e.g., holders of a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) access care for unforeseen situations or for chronic conditions as if they had an SNS number. For people without a SNS number there are, however, difficulties in accessing care at low cost in private providers that operate under an agreement with the SNS (e.g. clinical laboratories) or in buying subsidised medication at community pharmacies. Expenses ("despesas incorridas") are larger sums, or the "full price", charged to other people: tourists without an EHIC, people with a temporary stay visa to accompany a relative that's getting specialised care in Portugal, people who choose to use their private insurance...