By Patrick Chong
Before disregarding single trip travel insurance for your next trip to anywhere in the EU, be sure that you understand the facts.
• Yes, you can obtain a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) free of charge from the NHS.
• That will allow you to the same level of free emergency treatment as the citizens of the EU country you're visiting.
However, great as that may be, there are a few problems you should be aware of.
• Not all EU countries consider 'emergency services' to mean the same thing, and aspects of their services might be chargeable in their country whereas those same services might be free in the UK. That might mean you'll still find a hefty bill in some treatment situations.
• In some countries, things like private rooms are typically chargeable and that applies to other things also. For example, in France only 70% of non-critical treatment is free with the remaining 30% being covered by additional cover (which you won't have with an EHIC card).
• If you're unlucky enough to be so ill or so injured as to justify medical repatriation to the UK, that won't be covered by your EHIC because it's not an equivalent service to those provided locally. Remember that air ambulance costs might run into many thousands of pounds.
• Things like the theft of baggage, money, documents and so on won't be covered at all by an EHIC. You'll need single trip travel insurance to provide any sort of financial assistance against such eventualities;
• Some hospitals and medical centres abroad, where you might be taken in an emergency, may be private and not accept an EHIC. This is controversial and has been the cause of some disputes between EU governments; but the fact remains that in some institutions they may look for external medical insurance cover and not an EHIC.
• Your EHIC won't cover any additional costs incurred by your family staying with you while you're receiving treatment.
• Linked to that same point, in some countries the emergency treatment provided by private hospitals and clinics might be of a higher standard and you might not wish to be transferred to a public hospital where your EHIC would be accepted.
• As the name suggests, it's worth keeping in mind that the EHIC has no validity outside of the European Union. If your journey involves crossing borders between, say, Greece and Turkey, your cover may lapse once you leave the EU. By contrast, extra cover may be far more flexible in that respect.
Of course, none of the above reasons suggests that an EHIC isn't potentially very useful in certain sorts of situation. However, given the typically low-cost of single trip travel insurance policies, you might want to question whether or not it wouldn't be more reassuring to have such cover in place anyway.
Patrick Chong is the Managing Director of Insuremore. We provide low cost travel insurance and offer a range of policies including single trip travel insurance, annual, multi-trip and family cover. For all your travel cover needs, Insuremore can help you in the quickest and most cost-efficient way.
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