Medical Insurance for Europe

I'm not too sure about what basic cover the EHIC would give, but travel insurance covers more than this. What would happen if you were ill or had a accident (God forbid) and needed repatriation to the UK? You would have to find the funds which could be considerable, or wait until you could get yourself home after being discharged from hospital and again where would you live?

Not cheaper to just take out European insurance than worldwide?

yes, Many year ago my wife's brother in law got ill (fully recovered) while on holiday in Austria, he and his wife were flown home on a air-ambulance half way through the holiday and ambulances door to door. This was just the standard Thompson's holiday insurance.

>This site< should help you out Hitch.

peedee

Hitchglitch.  I would not travel in Europe without medical insurance.  Bear in mind that in France the EHIC covers roughly 70% of the costs of non life threatening illnesses.  Break your leg - a bill, collapse in street - a bill, fall off your bike and taken to hospital - a bill and so it goes on.  When we lived in France I needed hernia op and before I could leave the hospital I had to pay (or have insurance clearance) for I think it was 1300 euros. For Europe Red Pennant could possibly be good for you.  Your bank may offer cover up to age of 80.  Down under, well that's another problem and you will have to do some investigation.  I am seeing a friend this evening who went to Australia in Jan, think he is over 80 I will ask him what he did and come back to you. 

I have it in the back of my mind that if you don't first use your EHIC card where it is accepted insurance companies will not cover all your expenses.

peedee

Most European insurance policies have an excess if you don't use the EHIC card.

We are not world wide travellers so fortunately don't have to arrange such insurance. When we have trips to Europe not in the motorhome or on a cruise we tend to use Age UK. With the motorhome we always use Red Pennant because at the end of the day I need a combined policy and I have been down the route of using so called "free" insurance policies and usually found they are far from free with our combined medical conditions. The trouble with opting to not cover some conditions is whether insurance companies would use it as an excuse not to pay up if another problem had the slightest link. Red Pennant whilst fairly straightforward even they can be difficult if you are on a regime of changing medication. 

David

We had to use emergency cover while in Spain for OH, he was taken by ambulance from the campsite to A&E where he received very good care, a further visit 2 days later again to A&E however this time we chose to use a Taxi  all this was covered by EHIC, the only thing we had to pay for was the medication they prescribed and the Taxi. We informed the FREE insurance company of the situation as it happened  they asked us to keep them informed but also called OH back the next day to see if we needed any help with anything. They also said if required repatriation wouldn't be a problem.

While on a cruise in the Caribbean we both took ill and had to receive medical intervention on board ship, this time it was the FREE holiday cover that picked up the bill, we didn't even have to pay the excess as the ships medical staff dealt with all the paperwork for us. Had we chosen to do the paperwork our self we would have paid £50 excess each. The bill was paid very quickly by insurance company at no lose to us. 

We have recently renewed our policy and extended the 31 days to 80 days, the previous conditions we had listed were removed as we had not had any medical intervention in the last 12 mths.