You will also find that holiday travel insurance small print often refers to the need to use your EHIC when visiting the doctor or hospital if the insurance is to pick up the bill. So even with private medical cover EHIC is necessary.

Thanks for the 'heads uo' Neil

That's why I insured with 'EHIC Plus'. With a bit of 'history' a lot of quotes were very high, so I always read the small print, and in a lot of cases you are not getting any more when in EC territory than you are with EHIC plus, who didn't charge any extra (unsurprisingly) for the past history. So with most of the others they charge extra for the higher risk, but in the small print almost all that 'health' risk is covered by the HIC card.

I used my EHIC in Marbella hospital last month, I was in there for 5 days. Not a very pleasant experience. As far as I know the forms I signed were to give permission for a blood transfusion if needed & for some test they needed to carry out. Wasn't given anything else to say anything about paying. Would recommend that anybody needing to receive treatment in hospital in Spain ask for a translator to make thing clear for them, didn't find out about the service until I had been there a day.

For what it's worth, when I bought my annual travel insurance for 'Europe', (which bundled in turkey and some of north Africa!), I had the option to buy 'excluding Spain' or pay rather more to 'include Spain'!!? The policy says that I must show my ehic. This year, I excluded Spain so I don't know what the instructions would be. Also right now I wouldn't fancy my chances in what's left of the Greek NHS!

The reports about this that I have read seem to all have the same thing in common.... There has to be a voluntary signature to exit the system.

If you don't do that then all seems to be as per the designed system.

Unless I'm missing something :blink:

We are travelling north to Scandinavia this year with our EHIC plus insurance; I wouldn't feel so confident if we were heading south!!