The EHIC card and travel insurance

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) entitles citizens of EU nations to receive free or discount medical care whilst travelling within the EU. But what a lot of people don't realise is that it is no substitute for travel insurance. The EHIC isn't something that is going to fully protect your wallet from the costs of treatment abroad, and definitely does not cover things like replacement flights.

One of the main concerns is that, compared to the UK, many EU nations don’t have such an accessible healthcare system. Many treatments need to be subsidised, which can lead to hefty hospital bills. It is under these circumstances that your travel insurance covers the things that your EHIC won’t.

To use one common example, we have the French health service. If you don't buy travel insurance and really solely on your EHIC, the following problems would occur should you need to seek medical attention:

Prescription costs - Some prescriptions will be subsidised with the EHIC, but not to the full amount and some will not be subsidised at all. Without travel insurance you could end up paying for any prescriptions, and while most drugs don’t cost the earth some medications can be quite expensive.

GP visit - This is perhaps one of the likeliest scenarios when travelling, seeing as a GP deals with minor cases. Unlike in Britain where a visit to the GP is free, in France then the patient must pay 30 per cent of the charge applied to the visit. Things like calling a doctor to your hotel at night because a child is sick are going to work out quite expensive.

Hospital fees - Something else not included in EHIC cover is the surcharge that hospitals in France tag onto a patients bill for every day that they are an in-patient. Most medical conditions fortunately do not need the patient to stay for a long time, but some do, as in the case of broken limbs or when the patient must be monitored.

With all of these examples, having travel insurance would save you from any financial commitment. And this is only medical bills being discussed here, there are many other benefits of travel insurance that are invaluable, such as cancellation cover and theft cover. They can be just as important as the medical side of things.

Spain, Switzerland and Portugal are further examples of places that will leave you with a large liability for medical costs if you travel with an EHIC but without travel insurance. For this reason as well as numerous other reasons, having travel insurance is an essential part of travelling that should not be ignored.