European Health Card

Ise wrote:When did Switzerland join the EU?

Can of worms duly opened... interestingly, it appears the EHIC does cover medical treatment in Switzerland, see the NHS guidance for Switzerland here.

Interestingly it also states coverage of 50% of "emergency rescue" to a maximum of CHF 5000 - so that should cover the first 100metres of your airlift off the mountain then...

Pretty clearly, the EHIC is a useful top-up (especially as it's free) to cover the actual medical treatment in relevant countries, but is NOT a substitute for proper insurance. Mountain rescue costs are often quoted well into five figures if they include a helicopter... :shock:

I think that Switzerland is included because it is within the European Economic Area, which is different to the E.U, but don't quote me :D

Dave Mac wrote

Is it not the case that membership of the EU should ensure genuine reciprocation?

My understanding is that the EHIC system allows any EU citizen to access the public health system of any member state on the same basis as the locals. Thus, because the UK system is largely free, any EU citizen can access free treatment. However, many other member states charge their own citizens varying amounts for different types of treatment and the same regime applies to visitors from other EU states. Furthermore, most other countries have a dual public and private healthcare system and as previous posters have pointed out, the clinics that you might be brought to are often private which changes things completely.

rustyinn wrote:I'm constantly beating people around the head about this

Do they have their EHIC handy? :lol:

Thanks to this thread, I renewed our cards online on Tuesday and the new cards arrived in this morning's post. How efficient is that!

Dave Mac wrote:This was meant as a reminder to J2skiers. However, it has raised issues that I don't understand.

Imagine an Austrian, Swiss or French person is walking in the Lake District. They have a fall and say it is of leg break seriousness.

They will be attended by our mountain rescue, helicoptered out, if this is appropriate, and have their injury treated.

I believe that all of this would be free of charge, especially if they can produce an EHIC. (Not that our NHS has any computer system that could read an EHIC card.)

Is it not the case that membership of the EU should ensure genuine reciprocation?

what I'd pointed out and Dave blatted was that this is a totally spurious comparison, the statutory basis of mountain rescue is totally unrelated to health insurance. If it were related then your comparison would be wrong anyway as I'm pretty sure you're mistaken about how mountain rescue works in Europe, for that matter I'm not entirely sure you're aware how it works in the UK especially for helicopters.

If you want to do a genuine comparison you need to factor in the mandatory premiums we pay in Europe for health insurance and the premiums we pay for accident insurance. Unless your point was the someone from the UK is getting a really cheap deal in which case you're entirely right :) Otherwise it sounds like an op-ed from the Daily Mail :-) :-)

Ise wrote:

what I'd pointed out and Dave blatted was that this is a totally spurious comparison, the statutory basis of mountain rescue is totally unrelated to health insurance. If it were related then your comparison would be wrong anyway as I'm pretty sure you're mistaken about how mountain rescue works in Europe, for that matter I'm not entirely sure you're aware how it works in the UK especially for helicopters.

Ise, how unkind!

Spurious? I made it clear that I did not understand the differences. What I was attempting to do was open the gate to understanding. In the UK, we are, in general,blessed with fairly useless, ill-educated politicians. They arrive at policies that will allow extradition of suspects from the UK to the USA without evidence, and without reciprocation. At least that policy is clear. EHIC is not clear, in detail, and it should be.

I am surprised at the word that you use, because I have a healthy respect for your grasp of issues, Swiss and Euro knowledge, and you frequently give good information pointers.

What I highlighted was that in general, UK citizens do not understand what they will get from the EHIC protocol.

With regard to "the statutory basis of mountain rescue is totally unrelated to health insurance." Is there a "statutory basis of mountain rescue"?

I agree that this should be the case. However, within the past two years, I have been involved in a case where the Alpingers refused to release the Ackier, because the Unfall was "outside the stated piste area" The guy had to plead for an emergency number, which he called directly from his mobile, in order to get helicopter assistance.

From this and other experiences, I am not sure that one could conclude that there is a standard methodology in European mountain rescues, and I make no attempt to state that. Like you do now, I used to take part in ski accident rescues, setting leg breaks, bringing down the Ackier.

If you want to do a genuine comparison you need to factor in the mandatory premiums we pay in Europe for health insurance and the premiums we pay for accident insurance.

This is part of the lack of understanding, and lack of clarity that I was highlighting. You obviously understand how Switzerland operates, and I'm sure that you are clued up on France. But in the UK, information on this kind of thing is weak.

Wanderer highlighted this well. Bandit re-inforced with the 3V example.

I repeat, I don't understand the meaning of the EHIC, and I found very little constructive to help.

Dave Mac wrote:Ise wrote:

what I'd pointed out and Dave blatted was that this is a totally spurious comparison, the statutory basis of mountain rescue is totally unrelated to health insurance. If it were related then your comparison would be wrong anyway as I'm pretty sure you're mistaken about how mountain rescue works in Europe, for that matter I'm not entirely sure you're aware how it works in the UK especially for helicopters.

Ise, how unkind!

Spurious? I made it clear that I did not understand the differences. What I was attempting to do was open the gate to understanding. In the UK, we are, in general,blessed with fairly useless, ill-educated politicians. They arrive at policies that will allow extradition of suspects from the UK to the USA without evidence, and without reciprocation. At least that policy is clear. EHIC is not clear, in detail, and it should be.

The provision of mountain rescue isn't related to health insurance so it's not a good idea to link it particularly if you recognise you're not entirely up to speed on it. To be able to jump to extradition treaties is like landing in a game of Mornington crescent )