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Topic: EHIC card in Spain

angryangus

15/6/2015 at 2:30pm
Location: Aberdeenshire
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hi, my insurers have told me that as of a few weeks ago Spain is no longer in the EHIC health card system. Does anyone know anything about this as I can find nothing on the web. I know there have been problems and that some hospitals have refused to accept it and that the EU is looking into this but I can't find anything about a complete pull out from the system.

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Berriow

15/6/2015 at 2:39pm
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The problem I have heard is a different one - that seriously ill tourists in Spain, who are too ill to argue the point - have for some time now been taken by ambulance straight to private hospitals. And there the bills mount up for anyone without a good quality health insurance policy, so whether or not there have been recent changes I wouldn't go to Spain relying simply on EHIC.

billy

15/6/2015 at 2:54pm
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The stories are of ambulances being paid to take foreign patients to private hospitals. One needs to insist on being taken to a public hospital. I cannot see how Spain can opt out of EHIC but the card only offers same service as available to locals which in some EU countries may not be that good, but public healthcare is ok in Spain though.

Tom#n#Gill

16/6/2015 at 10:41am
Location: Bolton
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Caught pneumonia 1 st day on holiday in Spain, went to the local health center 1st they ask straight away for your card. Was put in an ambulance took on a blue light to the local public hospital at Gandia. They also wanted the card. If you have the card there does not seem to be a problem. If you do end up in hospital in Spain they do run a little different then NHS, they are noisy, pay and provide your own interpreter, your relatives are expected to muck in,(take muck in in a literal sense!!!!) and the food is awful. The main thing is quality of care which in my experience was as good as the UK.
Came out with out a penny to pay, if you think you will get a fortune for a ruined holiday of your insurance think again, got about £2 a day for my hospital stay!!!!!!

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clbewi

16/6/2015 at 10:55am
Location: Essex
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Colleague at work slipped over in a ice cream parlour and broke her hip, hip repaired on her EHIC card, she said they were fantastic.

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Claire and Colin

lizex

16/6/2015 at 7:54pm
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This is what the NHS has to say. It does say pretty clearly that it's State-provided healthcare only. They point you to the Healthcare in Spain website which says much the same.

When we lived in the Netherlands, for example, our healthcare provider gave us a card which extended full cover to the whole of the EU for 365 days a year. I think the problem is that we 'only' have the NHS so we 'only' get public healthcare cover elsewhere. And in Spain they use State and private providers pretty much indiscriminately as they're usually covered for both (it's a dual system). So I don't think they're trying to rip us off, they just don't know we're only covered for the State provider.

Now all we need is to learn how to say "take me to the State hospital" in Spanish!

L

sue.too

16/6/2015 at 11:30pm
Location: Cheshire
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My in-laws live in Spain.

I was bitten by something whilst I was staying with them and my lower leg swelled like a balloon. I stayed awake all night watching it swell and vowed that if the swelling reached my knee then someone was ringing for la ambulancia!

I made it to the morning and the decision was made by my in-laws that the best port of call was the pharmacy. The NHS style clinic has massive queues apparently and they had no idea about the local A and E having never used it. Actually the pharmacy was very good and the assistant checked with the pharmacist before prescribing ibuprofen, antihistamine and cortosteroid. Didn't cost much at all and within a few days all was well.

I will always make sure I have insurance when travelling abroad though, especially in countries that have SPIDERS!!

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