The European health card

Austin Psaila writes:
As an EU citizen am I entitled to free medical services in other EU countries? If so, is there a special ID card issued for this purpose, as in Denmark?

Yes, there is a special card that entitles you to medical services in other EU countries. This is the European health insurance card which recently replaced the document that used to be known as the E111 form.

This card makes it easier for you to obtain any medical treatment that you may need while staying temporarily in another EU countries.

It gives you access to public health care in all EU countries as well as in the three countries of the European Economic Area (EEA) (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) and also in Switzerland as if you were a citizen of these countries. That's a total of 28 countries other than Malta.

The card normally entitles you to be treated on an equal basis as nationals of that country. In practice this means that the card gives you access to free or reduced-fee medical treatment.

However, there are some important points to keep in mind.

First of all, the card does not always necessarily and automatically entitle you to completely free medical treatment. Keep this in mind. If the medical treatment is free for the nationals of the country that you visit, then it will normally also be free of charge for you. But if it is not free for them, then, equally, you will be charged at the same rate.

Although in many countries, public health care is provided free of charge because it is covered by the respective national insurance schemes, strictly speaking, you are entitled to equal treatment and not to free treatment. There is an important difference between the two. In some cases, you might be asked to pay and then only be entitled to a partial refund, not a full one. It is important to stress this point because I have come across cases where people who needed medical treatment while on holiday abroad were surprised and disappointed to be asked to pay in cases where even nationals of that particular country would have been asked to pay.

Secondly, the treatment to which you are entitled is limited to medical treatment that you may need during a temporary stay in another country, typically emergency medical care.

This means that you should not expect to have a right to go abroad specifically for free medical treatment. For this kind of treatment, you would normally require the prior authorisation of your national health authorities before going abroad for treatment.

On this point, however, the European Court of Justice has been gradually extending the rights of EU citizens with more and more cases where prior authorisation is not required.

Thirdly, the treatment which you may require is provided in accordance with the rules of the country you are visiting and the costs incurred are reimbursed in line with the tariff scales applied in that country. You would normally be reimbursed on the spot or soon after your return home. So keep all your bills, prescriptions and receipts.

Fourthly, your European health insurance card entitles you to publicly-funded health treatment only. It does not give you access to private health care. Nor is it a substitute for your private health insurance scheme. So be careful to request medical treatment in public health facilities if you want to be covered by the benefits of your card.

So before you leave to go on holiday in any of the EU/EEA countries, make sure you take with you your European health insurance card. Hopefully, you will not need it. But carrying the card gives you the peace of mind of having access to medical treatment if ever you needed it.

Malta replaced the former E111 form with the European health insurance card with effect from January this year. If you do not have a card yet, then you can obtain it, free of charge, by filling in an application form which you may obtain from the Entitlement Unit at 23, St John Street, Valletta or which you can download from this website: http://www.sahha.gov.mt/entities/entitlementunit.html

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