If you are off on holiday soon, you should make sure you have appropriate health insurance.
Many holidaymakers bound for Europe think the ‘European Health Insurance Card’ will cover you if you are ill, but this has never been the case in all instances as a recent decision of the European Court of Justice confirms.
The decision stipulates that where a patient has to go to hospital, the costs will only be refunded by the ‘insuring’ state to the state in which the hospitalisation occurs if the same treatment would have been paid for by insurance in the patient’s country of residence. Application of this rule will leave the state in which hospitalistion occurs to look to the patient for any costs that will not be reimbursed.
Also, under a recent change in the rules, some British residents of other EU countries now have to apply for their EHIC from the UK, not from their country of residence. See the NHS website for more details.