CYPRIOTS travelling within the EU or in a European Economic Area (EEA) country are now entitled to reduced-cost, sometimes free, medical treatment with the introduction of the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC).
Until now, people travelling across European needed an E form – such as the E111 or the E128 – to get such treatment. But the new card has nudged aside the paper forms, thus saving on countless paperwork and bureaucratic jargon, while at the same time making the process of medical treatment for European citizens easier. One card is needed for each individual or member of the family and is valid for up to two years.
But the card gives no entitlement where the aim of the travel is to receive healthcare.
A Health Ministry official yesterday told the Cyprus Mail that Cypriots who might have an accident abroad would certainly benefit from possessing the card.
“It is obviously a benefit for Cypriots travelling abroad to have this card, while it is also a benefit for foreigners travelling to Cyprus who also have the same card. But the card doesn’t necessarily mean that Cypriots would get free health treatment abroad. It all depends on the health system of the national government. In France, for example, a Cypriot would have to pay a part of the treatment while in Great Britain that treatment would be free.”
In the past, foreigners visiting the island would have to pay a hospital fee if they were involved in an accident and needed emergency treatment. But with the new card all that is about to change.
“A foreigner with an EHIC would get free treatment in the event of an emergency in all of the state hospitals on the island, but not the private hospitals.”
The EEA consists of all the EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Although Switzerland applies the EHIC arrangements through an agreement with the EU, Cypriots, as well as citizens of the other nine new member states, cannot use their EHIC in Switzerland.
Most of the EU member states had already implemented the new cards back in June 2004 and Cyprus, Slovakia, Hungary, Malta, Poland and the Netherlands soon followed with the introduction of the new cards on January 1, 2006. Switzerland, a non-EU member state, also introduced the new card at around the same time.
According to EU officials, the “European Health Insurance Card, in its present phase, represents a first step towards simplification, which is essential in order to study and start preparing procedures for the electronic exchange and processing of data via the European Health Insurance Card.”
n For more information in obtaining the new European Health Insurance Card call 22-400207
