Has anyone read the news about going abroad to Spain with your EHIC form. We all know you should take out additional travel insurance when you go abroad, it is the sensible thing to do, but what has been happening in Spain is , because of their poor economy, if anyone is taken ill and they present their EHIC card at the doctors or the hospital, the hospital or doctors are refusing to accept it. They will only treat you if you have travel insurance, people are being turned away because some of them don't take out travel insurance and think the EHIC card is enough for medical treatment when they go abroad.
The insurance companies are up in arms, because they are having to pay out for drugs and treatment that should have been free with the EHIC card and are now putting up their travel insurance costs.
It really is disgusting, because if a person who is a Spanish citizen comes to the UK and is taken ill, they will get free treatment from us but we can't get it from them, it is the same in other countries, we always have to take out travel insurance before we go anywhere but when anyone comes to the UK they get it for free.
We are really mugs, it makes no wonder that we are short of cash and the old and disabled are being the ones to suffer because there is not enough money to go round and making you jump through hoops to get the benefits you deserve.
Had noticed the insurance companies are excluding Spain from European cover which means you have to pay for worldwide cover at a higher cost. Don't think we chase up foreign nationals hard enough to pay for their treatment in this country. I beleive even some ex pats return here to get free treatment if it's too expensive in the country they have chosen to move to. As you say this country are mugs when it comes to assisting foreign nationals.
Hi. Let me just tell everyone, my husband is British, and he has been working all his life, been paying all his taxes etc. We moved to Denmark 10 years ago, and now we are back in the UK, since last July, so coming up for a year.
He had to go to the hospital last week, he has got a anyrysium in his stomach, was told they will opearate, but because we had been living abroad for 10 years, we would have to be living back in the UK for a year,before any treatment could be given, and was told someone would phone him, so he will have to wait until we have been here a year,and he is British, never used the NHS before,but paid into the system.
So they need to be more strict with holiday maker coming here, they are strict with my husband, it makes me angry, so brits be aware if you are moving back home .
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