EHIC card: What isn’t covered by the European Health Insurance card when abroad?

T itle"> The European Health Insurance card (EHIC) is a useful thing for any British traveller to have when travelling to other European countries. The card gives you access to free (or discounted) medical services depending on your injury or illness. It, of course, doesn’t cover all medical expenses (no insurance does), but it’s extremely useful. The problem is, most people think it works like a standard British Health Insurance, but the truth is, different countries have different norms regarding insurance, and the EHIC follows the norms of the country you visit. So here’s what the EHIC doesn’t cover: Everything The general notion is that the EHIC covers everything that a general health insurance does, but it’s a wrong one. If there’s a medical condition that the insurance doesn’t cover for the locals of the country you visit, your EHIC won’t cover it either. For example, if you break your leg and the country you’re in requires locals to pay for its medical attention, you’d have to pay too. Travel Your EHIC, perhaps most importantly, doesn’t cover air ambulances or repatriation. That means if you (God forbid) get seriously injured in a foreign country, you will have to pay a ton of money to get back. What does cover these expenses is a travel insurance, subject to some conditions. So if you have an EHIC without a travel insurance, you may end up spending a lot. The same applies if you have a travel insurance but not an EHIC, because it’s only the EHIC which will help cover some expenses in the foreign country.