Experiences of using European Health Insurance Card?

[Guest ademapearl]

My wife was diagnosed with irregular heart beat, which has now been shocked into behaving itself, as well as a few other medical problems which are well controlled by various pills. This was reported to the insurance company. In days gone by, this sort of thing used to be referred on to the insurance companys nurse, who used to assess your present state of health and how stable your condition was. Now everything has been taken over by computer assessment, which as soon as it hears past referral to heart specialists, computer say no! We can only get insurance which excludes heart and certain other conditions. Result? Our travelling will now be restricted to EU countries with a good health service.

 

Which raises the question - if my wife went to a doctor or hospital in an emergency waving her European health Insurance Card (EHIC), what sort of reception would she get? We have read all the official stuff with guides to healthcare in the EU, but we would be interested to hear peoples ACTUAL experiences of getting treatment on a EHIC. In Britain, it doesnt seem to matter who you are - just turn up at casualty and you will get all the benefits of the NHS, whether you have paid your taxes or not. However I suspect that some of our foreign cousins may be a bit less keen to reciprocate.

 

I have heard that some public hospital services in the EU (eg Greece, Bulgaria) are a bit dodgy, but our intention is to travel in France, Germany, Switzerland (included in EHIC scheme), Belgium etc. Some people may also have experience of hospitals in Spain - I imagine that doctors on the Costas could be getting a bit fed up of Brit tourists falling ill.

 

Any personal experiences - the good, the bad and the ugly, very welcome, to help us to either continue travelling with confidence or restrict ourselves to the UK.

[spospe]

What you get for your EHIC has been outlined in fair detail by Don Madge in the 'Sticky' at the top of this Forum titled:

 

EHIC Country by Country guide to entitlement

 

http://www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=9548&posts=25

[Syd]

In Spain we had to call out a doctor for my son who became quiet ill fairly quickly. We actually paid but the doctor said that if my son was to go into hospital we would not be able to stay with him plus we would have to have an interpreter with us because the hospital were fed up with treating british holidaymakers.

 

We had a prescriptiopn in our hands by then so I delivered the following little repost.

 

Are you telling me that the educational standards in Spain are so low that your doctors were not taught English at school or college, and we know exactly how your hospitals feel about treating holiday makers because we feel exactly the same about treating the Spanish over in England.

 

He left rather abruptly

 

I have a friend who lives out there who has had major cancer surgery procedures carried out on the EHIC card so it must be acceptable in Spain

[BGD]

Sorry Syd,

 

Each to their own view, but I think your "quip" at the doctor who was still trying to look after you even though you didn't speak the language of his country whilst you were in his country, was not fair.

[colinfrier]

Our local hospital in Velex Malaga has interpretors on duty and most doctors speak english and many of the nurses sadly we have had much experiance of the hospitals all good better than the sick NHS

[enodreven]

Hi,

 

I'm sure you have read the link from Don Madge, by now, on whats covered by the EHIC card in the different countries, and i am sure as with the NHS people will have differing views on the level of service/care provided.

 

I would therefore suggest that if you are thinking of just using the EHIC card and not supplementing it with some form of insurance, then you would be wise to look into the things that it won't cover e.g :-

 

(1) Repatriation to the UK, air ambulance etc.

 

(2) Some on going care after a serious illness, I believe some countries expect the family to provide some of the services that we would expect as the norm from the NHS, others can elaborate I'm sure.

 

(3) Often doctors initial visits have to be paid for.

 

(4) Not sure about drugs whether they are all covered free.

 

I'm sure there are a number of other things that you should take into account before making your decision.

 

hope that helps,

 

ADACPlus breakdown cover has a level of repatriation cover contained within its breakdown policy, so may be worth investigating

 

http://www1.adac.de/mitgliedschaft_leistungen/mitgliedschaftstarife/membership/default.asp?ComponentID=30621&SourcePageID=193391

 

 

 

 

 

 

ademapearl - 2010-01-04 3:08 PM

 

My wife was diagnosed with irregular heart beat, which has now been shocked into behaving itself, as well as a few other medical problems which are well controlled by various pills. This was reported to the insurance company. In days gone by, this sort of thing used to be referred on to the insurance companys nurse, who used to assess your present state of health and how stable your condition was. Now everything has been taken over by computer assessment, which as soon as it hears past referral to heart specialists, computer say no! We can only get insurance which excludes heart and certain other conditions. Result? Our travelling will now be restricted to EU countries with a good health service.

 

Which raises the question - if my wife went to a doctor or hospital in an emergency waving her European health Insurance Card (EHIC), what sort of reception would she get? We have read all the official stuff with guides to healthcare in the EU, but we would be interested to hear peoples ACTUAL experiences of getting treatment on a EHIC. In Britain, it doesnt seem to matter who you are - just turn up at casualty and you will get all the benefits of the NHS, whether you have paid your taxes or not. However I suspect that some of our foreign cousins may be a bit less keen to reciprocate.

 

I have heard that some public hospital services in the EU (eg Greece, Bulgaria) are a bit dodgy, but our intention is to travel in France, Germany, Switzerland (included in EHIC scheme), Belgium etc. Some people may also have experience of hospitals in Spain - I imagine that doctors on the Costas could be getting a bit fed up of Brit tourists falling ill.

 

Any personal experiences - the good, the bad and the ugly, very welcome, to help us to either continue travelling with confidence or restrict ourselves to the UK.

[Syd]

BGD - 2010-01-04 6:11 PM

 

Sorry Syd,

 

Each to their own view, but I think your "quip" at the doctor who was still trying to look after you even though you didn't speak the language of his country whilst you were in his country, was not fair.

 

 

I agree that if we live in a country we should attempt to speak their language but we do not live there, we are visitors

It was as fair as the Spanish hospital insisting that we had interpreters, with the STRONG inference that no interpreter meant no treatment, not something we do here as we would provide interpreters.

Statements such as that are both bad manners and prone to makeing stressed out parents a little edgy. Well in my case anyway

In addition, our son's communication skills, of which this doctor was very well aware of, are very poor indeed so how could they expect him cope or themselves to cope with him without us being there.

 

Further we were not spongeing off the Spanish people we were private paying clients, we expect and do pay for everything that we receive and his visit cost us over 80 euro's plus the medication, good value for money too

 

In addition the huge income derived by Spain from holiday makers seems to be suddenly forgotten and without which Spain would be feeling even more pain, a little appreciation of both sides of the coin would not come in amiss and may encourage more visitors to their country.

 

Anyway eventually I was happy that we did not have to make a hospital visit and that the treatment for his water infection worked

[bazooka]

My neighbour told me he was taken ill in italy last year with a heart problem,at the hospital he had all sorts of tests including one where something is inserted in his vein and his arteris checked ,all his treatment was free. Back home he's had trouble getting insurance because of his heart condition Saga have acceped him.I woudn't go abroad without full cover.

[Mel B]

When we needed to see a doctor (at their practice) in 2007 in France we had to pay but as the amount was small it wasn't claimable anyway on our insurance, however, if it had been more obviously we could've claimed it back.

 

I wouldn't consider going abroad without holiday health insurance - we even claimed for the dog when she injured herself last year as the policy we took out included an amount for vets fees with NO excess! The vet cost us over 50 euros and we got every penny back, so it's not just the human costs you need to think about (assuming you've got pets!).

[Rowan Lee]

Can't comment on EHIC's, but don't give up on the Health Insurance. We are currently in America, having at one time almost given up hope of being able to travel here because we couldn't get insurance for my husband who has had a minor heart attack some years ago and has had a stent fitted. We had two problems; we wanted to travel to the US and we wanted to stay for three months. Saga would cover him Worldwide, but excluding US and Canada, and we were also able to get full cover but for just under £2,000. On the point of forgetting the whole thing, we discovered, via the Moneysavingexpert website, a company called MIA - www.miaonline.info - and he now has an annual policy including the USA and covering all pre-existing conditions for £170.

 

On the subject of Spanish doctors and hospitals, my father spent several weeks in hospital in Lorca, including two weeks in intensive care until he died - I bet you wouldn't get that in an English hospital. During all that time, despite difficulties with language although Dad did have some Spanish, he was always treated with the utmost care and respect and so were we, his family. Until he went up to the intensive care ward, it was necessary for one of us to be with him as the nurses only carry out nursing duties - they do not feed or look after the patient's personal care. My Mum had to sleep in the reclining chair beside his bed. The doctors did everything they could for him. Respect earns respect and it is quite obvious why in some cases they are fed up with treating the English.

[BrianR]

Over the years we have used the card and its predecessor, the E111, in France. We have never had a problem getting treatment from a GP and then a prescription made up at a chemist. Make sure you get the form (Feuille de Soin) from the doctor and the chemist, and that you get the chemist to peel off the stickers from the medecine and stick these on the form, before sending them off for the refund - usually about 80%, less bank charges. They go to the area CEPAM (I think these initials are right) office, with a copy of your EHIC and your UK bank account details including SWIFT and IBAN codes. The refund takes about 4 to 5 months. A friend required emergency treatment in a French hospital and they said that for "life threatening" conditions all treatment is free and no paperwork required. So if you go into hospital and they say they don't need sight of your EHIC, start worrying!

[sweetie]

Please do not just rely on EHIC only. We had a friend who had a stroke last year in spain he spent 5 months in hospital then a month back on the campsite in rv. Someone drove his rv back to england with him as passenger. But if he had been unable to come back that way and had needed to be flown home imagine the cost £20000 +.

 

I have heart problems ie angioplasty with stents/ 1 heart attack/ then diagnosed type 2 diabetes 2 year ago so not easy to get insurance.

So know use EHIC PLUS Just taken out cover for 60 day trip to spain for £123.00 that is for me at 62 and wife at 67 lucky she has no notifyable health problems.

hope this helps

Steve