European Health Card

The problem with The European Health card is knowing what is actually covers.

According to official advice:

'If you or any of your dependants are suddenly taken ill or have an accident during your visit to any of these countries, free or reduced-cost necessary treatment is available - in most cases on production of a valid EU Health Insurance Card.

Only state-provided treatment is covered, and you'll receive treatment on the same terms as 'insured' residents of the country you're visiting.

Private treatment isn't generally covered, and state-provided treatment may not cover all of the things that you'd expect to receive free of charge from the NHS.'

So from what I can read into this it really depends on the country you are in and what they offer their citizens for free under the terms of their state provided treatment. I would therefore suggest contacting the particular countries embassy.

Hope that is of some help.

thanks guys, very useful info and my entire office have abandoned their alloted tasks for the day and are now busy checking their EHC for expiry dates and renewing if necessary, no one knew that it had one!

Some very scary stories about France in particular there. I'm off to Austria at Crimbo which seems to play fair, anyone any idea on how one fare's if you come a cropper in Switzerland?

It's ok I've looked it up and it's the same as Austria.

I think it's important to remember here that the EHC only covers basic state treatment so have some decent winter sports insurance cover in case of a bad accident and whatever you do, don't have your accident in France! :twisted:

I'm very pleased this has been brought up because the old E111 didn't expire unless you changed address so I don't think I would've bothered to check had I not been alerted to it. thanks dave and bandit :thumbup:

could someone bump up the thread in 2011 for me please :D

It is also worth having a look at your private health insurance (if you have it). In Ireland, the Voluntary Health Insurance (VHI) provides some cover for medical care while abroad and it is possible than BUPA and others have similar arrangements. I have personal knowledge of VHI effectively taking over the financial aspects of hospital stays in both Italy and Spain (in private hospitals on both occasions). While I am not sure if the same applies in relation to France, I expect that it does. Not sure if outpatient costs are covered. On each occasion, it seemed much simpler than trying to deal with the issue through EHIC or travel insurance and the cover seemed pretty good - they even provided a nurse to accompany a patient for the full journey home from Italy to Ireland (he had a heart attack on the first day of his holidays).

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?

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?

You might just be opening a VERY big can of worms here.....

(but thanks for the date reminder - I'm ok till 09/09)

Dave

[aarggh... sorry Ise I just blatted your post by mistake... Admin]