Healthcare AbroadDon’t lose out on free medical care in Europe
 As the summer in Britain looks distinctly wet lots of people are jetting off to Europe to get some much needed sunshine. If you are thinking about travelling soon remember to check you are covered for free medical care. It’s easy to do and doesn’t cost a penny.
You need a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) from the Department of health. You may already have one, 28million people do, but 3 million of these expire in the next six months, so you may just want to check it’s not out of date.
The card helps pay any travel insurance excess for medical care and entitles you to reduced cost or free state provided healthcare in most European countries, provided of course that your card is valid. The card replaced the E111 that you may remember three years ago.
Over half the people who have an EHIC don’t know that they have an expiry date and you need to renew them. If you need to renew yours it is easy to do and free. Do not be tempted to use a website that charges you for this. It’s a simple case of filling a form in on-line at http://www.nhs.uk/healthcareabroad or calling the EHIC helpline on 0845 606 2030.
If you need help filling in the form online, call our advice and information team on 0121 236 2197 and they will help you.
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