Spain EHIC with or without travel ins (1 Viewer)

[mojo]

Over the years spent in winter Spain we have never bothered with travel insurance but are not sure how much of a risk this is .Spoke to many more experienced motorhomers in Spain who also only have the EHIC .The below is a extract from the NHS and seems to say your covered just as long as you avoid private care and use only state healthcare.What do others do about travel insurance to Europe ?


.“The EHIC is not an alternative to travel insurance and will not cover any private medical healthcare or costs.”
When seeking treatment, it is essential to make sure you are treated in the public health system, not as a private patient. Because the two categories are often co-sited on the same premises, take care (if your condition allows) to ensure that you are being treated as an EHIC patient.

In the past, some British travellers seeking treatment in Spain and elsewhere have been asked to sign forms that signal their agreement to private care, at a possible cost of thousands of pounds.

 

[138go]

I don't think it is just the Healthcare it's everything that goes with it. We meet a couple earlier in the year and he had a blood clot in his leg. Very swollen. Hospital was miles away and he could not drive. Insurance were helping with advice and also arranging taxi to hospital.

I had a consultation at one of the Medical Clinics in Jaca. Walked in and saw the doctor within a few minutes. Then the fun started. There is a real problem with language. We finished up using Google Translate which worked but trying to say whats wrong and will these antibiotics cause problems was all very hard work. Patient info leaflet was all in Spanish.

You can of course phone your own doctor in the Uk but what do you do if they say you cannot travel. The guy we meet was stuck on the campsite with 30 days worth of injections and a visit back to the hospital a month later.

 

[MC 55 FUN]

Travelling anywhere without travel insurance is one massive risk in our opinion & one we would never take.

God forbid you need repatriation from Spain or anywhere else, unless you have plenty of cash in the bank.

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[jumartoo]

Last Spring we were on a camperstop near Cordoba. In the early hours of the morning we were woken by knocking on our door. It turned out the Brit man in the next van was having a fit. Martin arranged an ambulance and he was taken off to the local hospital. His wife kept us informed and he was helicoptered to Cordoba where he was operated on for a lesion on his brain. On release from hospital he was forbidden to travel and spent a month in a hotel in Cordoba before being able to go back home.

Luckily they had insurance!!!

 

[Minxy]

Its not the 'local' hospital treatment that's the major issue but the extra costs that would NOT be part of your EHIC reciprocal cover, some hospitals I believe will expect you to pay towards your keep (ie food etc), and if you can ONLY get to a private hospital you will have to pay for it yourself.

The biggest expense though is if you find you are incapacitated and need to be brought home in an emergency (either seriously ill or even dead!) then it would DEFINITELY not cover that which could easily run well over £10,000, possibly 3-4 times that!

People do take the risk but then some of them find massive bills 'served' on them.

 

[bigtwin]

A risky strategy to say the least!

However, if it all goes pear shaped you could always try a crowd funding campaign to raise any funds to help. It seems to be all the rage these days!

Ian

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[Puddleduck]

I can (of course) only speak for myself and my own attitude to risk.

Having health issues I would not travel without health insurance. However many companies will either not cover my health issues at all or only cover them at a great expense..... so if I have had hospital treatment (not just a check-up) in the previous 12 months I don't travel outside the UK. It's not the cost of treatment but all the other stuff that goes along with the treatment as said so well by others.

 

[keith]

Join ADAC they will repatriate you if you are incapacitated and your motorhome (up to 7.5 tonnes) if you cannot drive it yourself.
There is a Funster called Gary (Gary @flatpackchicken) who found himself in that position and ADAC were in the process of arranging to return him and MH back to the UK. In the end he didn't need that as his leg recovered so he did not need ADAC, but nice to know they were OK with that.

 

[Alex Black]

Travelling anywhere without travel insurance is one massive risk in our opinion & one we would never take.

God forbid you need repatriation from Spain or anywhere else, unless you have plenty of cash in the bank.

Fine.. What happens when you cant get health ins' ?? Like me! And a lot of companies don't go much over 30 days.

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[Alex Black]

How do the Spanish Et al manage when over here with our NHS then?

The big issue for us is BREXIT...

 

[WillH]

Buy insurance.

 

[Minxy]

Fine.. What happens when you cant get health ins' ?? Like me! And a lot of companies don't go much over 30 days.

Unfortunately you have to make a choice whether to risk it or not, or pay a high premium if you can get it.

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[Mikeco]

Join ADAC they will repatriate you if you are incapacitated and your motorhome (up to 7.5 tonnes) if you cannot drive it yourself.
There is a Funster called Gary (Gary @flatpackchicken) who found himself in that position and ADAC were in the process of arranging to return him and MH back to the UK. In the end he didn't need that as his leg recovered so he did not need ADAC, but nice to know they were OK with that.

Be aware that this cover is for 92 days from the start of your journey.

 

[Mikeco]

The problem is that as you aquire various medical conditions it starts to get expensive. The basic cover with the Camping Club for 6 months is £102 each, my excess was £7, my wife's excess was £1500. So in Spain for 6 months with the basic cover only.

 

[Dorset Diver]

We travel with EHIC and ADAC Plus cover. Why? Because if you are in need of emergency (A&E) treatment, regardless of whether you have travel insurance, you will be treated in a public facility. Throughout Europe private hospitals including those in the UK, do not have trauma units. ADAC Plus, apart from the vehicle cover, also provides worldwide emergency medical repatriation using their own fleet of fully equipped and staffed specialist air ambulances. That said it may not now be possible to set this up as ADAC have stopped accepting new customer who do not have a German address. Existing customers can still renew annually. Of course travel insurance covers other things but we can live without those.

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[Oscar]

Join ADAC they will repatriate you if you are incapacitated and your motorhome (up to 7.5 tonnes) if you cannot drive it yourself.
There is a Funster called Gary (Gary @flatpackchicken) who found himself in that position and ADAC were in the process of arranging to return him and MH back to the UK. In the end he didn't need that as his leg recovered so he did not need ADAC, but nice to know they were OK with that.[/QUOTE}]



I understand that ADAC is only now available to existing customers or those registered as living in Germany. I saw the following post on another forum

"Unfortunately from the 1st of October 2017 the ADAC Mobile Club in Germany is not allowed to take out any new memberships for interested people with a residence outside from Germany. For existing members it is still possible to renew the existing breakdown cover insurance over the phone and stay in ADAC mobile club"

 

[Minxy]

Be aware that this cover is for 92 days from the start of your journey.

Does that mean from when you leave home in the UK?

 

[Mikeco]

Does that mean from when you leave home in the UK?

According to the their document, which I have in English, they say that it is 92 days from the start of your journey so I would say yes.
I will have a look and see what the exact wording is, it also reduces to 45 days outside of Europe.

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[Mikeco]

Does that mean from when you leave home in the UK?

The wording is 92 days from departure from your place of residence

 

[Minxy]

The wording is 92 days from departure from your place of residence

Interesting, I wonder how many of those with ADAC breakdown/recovery realise that!

 

[Speve]

Join ADAC they will repatriate you if you are incapacitated and your motorhome (up to 7.5 tonnes) if you cannot drive it yourself.
There is a Funster called Gary (Gary @flatpackchicken) who found himself in that position and ADAC were in the process of arranging to return him and MH back to the UK. In the end he didn't need that as his leg recovered so he did not need ADAC, but nice to know they were OK with that.

If you live in UK you can’t join ADAC now they have changed their rules apparently oops beaten to it by Dorsetdiver.

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[meggie]

Looking for travel insurance any good company's out there for our trip to Spain for about 90 day.

 

[Speve]

Looking for travel insurance any good company's out there for our trip to Spain for about 90 day.

We have found these very good
International Travel and Healthcare Limited, West House, 46 High Street, Orpington, Kent BR6 0JQ Tel: 01689 892 228 Fax: 01689 892

 

[Mikeco]

Interesting, I wonder how many of those with ADAC breakdown/recovery realise that!

The limitation is for illness, death or certain special emergencies such as losing documents, the basic breakdown service is not affected

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[Minxy]

Looking for travel insurance any good company's out there for our trip to Spain for about 90 day.

We're with EHIC-Plus, for us a year's cover cost just £49.14 with a 45 day limit per trip (no restriction on number of trips). The website quote only goes up to 60 days but our Key Facts document has the below paragraph so it would be worth giving them a ring to check if you can buy it over the phone with a longer duration.

The Annual Multi-Trip policy provides cover for any number of trips in a 12-month period up to a maximum of 31, 45 or 60 days for each trip in respect of insured persons aged up to 85 years at the date of issue (this may be extended to 90 days, subject to acceptance and Additional Premium payment). If you have chosen this policy, the Schedule will show when the cover starts and finishes.​

http://www.ehicplus.com/

 

[WillH]

We travel all over the world, with health problems, wouldn't go anywhere abroad without cover for treatment and repatriation. A medical flight from the far east can cost well over£60k.

 

[138go]

Join ADAC they will repatriate you if you are incapacitated and your motorhome (up to 7.5 tonnes) if you cannot drive it yourself.
There is a Funster called Gary (Gary @flatpackchicken) who found himself in that position and ADAC were in the process of arranging to return him and MH back to the UK. In the end he didn't need that as his leg recovered so he did not need ADAC, but nice to know they were OK with that.

Not available in the Uk ..

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[mikebeaches]

Going abroad without appropriate travel insurance is ill advised in my view.

There have been some good points made in the thread as to why that is the case.

As an aside, my elderly brother-in-law and sister went on holiday to Tenerife a couple of years ago for a long weekend, armed only with his EHIC card. He tripped and broke his hip and was rushed to hospital. Now whether this is true or not I don't know, but he was told the only non-private hospital he could be treated for his injury was at the opposite end of the island in the capital Santa Cruz, almost 50 miles away - and that they only spoke Spanish there, and various other reasons to deter him from that choice.

Instead, he was taken to a private hospital in the resort they were staying at - Playa de las Americas. He had a hip replacement operation and was an in-patient for just over a week. However, he wasn't able to get a 'fitness to fly' certificate for a further six weeks and more hospital visits! Long story short, I think the final bill was just shy of £25k, after all hospital fees, board, extra hotel accommodation and taxis for him and my sister were paid for.

 

[bigtwin]

Long story short, I think the final bill was just shy of £25k, after all hospital fees, board, extra hotel accommodation and taxis for him and my sister were paid for.

Looks as though that case is firmly rested!

Ian

 

[MC 55 FUN]

Another very good, if not imperative, reason to have travel insurance is that policies often cover personal liability, which protects others & their property from accidents you may cause, bills for these type of incidents can easily be from a few thousand to £1m or more.

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