The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Lockdown 3 leaves us room to iron out post-Brexit travel
And while we wait, we can start applying for the new Global Health Insurance Card, which replaces the EU’s version
We’re in a strange no-man’s land. With Brexit came the most seismic changes to our rights and freedoms to travel in Europe in most of our lifetimes. But, by a weird coincidence, because we now can’t travel, it will be several more weeks before we start to understand and experience the realities of what has happened.
One lorry driver crossing from the UK did have his ham sandwiches confiscated by Dutch border officials the other day, which sounds petty after so many years of friction-free borders, but I guess it’s no different to what we expect when entering a country like Australia, for example.
Ironically the breathing space afforded by the pandemic may mitigate some of those early problems and misunderstandings. And, in the meantime, there has been some good news. The Government has issued further confirmation of the cover offered by the new Global Health Insurance Card, which replaces the EHIC arrangements that gave British citizens access to free or low-cost medical treatment in EU countries. The huge benefit of the EHIC was that people who found it hard – or sometimes impossible – to get full insurance because they had pre-existing medical conditions could travel knowing that, if they needed emergency treatment, they were entitled to use the local public health system.
That didn’t necessarily mean treatment was always completely free. There is a small fee for using GP services in France. And it wasn’t a substitute for a travel insurance policy, which generally also covers the potential costs of private medical treatment, emergency repatriation, cancelling your holiday, third-party liability, lost luggage and so on. But it was a reassuring fallback, as I found after a skiing accident in France a few years ago when I realised that my annual insurance policy had expired and I hadn’t received a renewal notice.
Although full details of the GHIC have yet to be announced, we now
WHAT ARE THE KEY DIFFERENCES? From the beginning of this year, neither the EHIC nor the GHIC any longer provides cover in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Healthcare in Norway and Switzerland in particular can be very expensive, so it’s important to make sure you are properly insured. The global adjective applied to the new card refers to the reciprocal healthcare arrangements that the UK already has in place for urgent treatment with 16 other countries outside the EU. Full details are on the FCDO website (gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice).
WHO IS ENTITLED TO A GHIC?
All those ordinarily resident in the UK are entitled to a card. Some British citizens – students studying in an EU country, and some pensioners resident abroad – should check their entitlements
through nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/ healthcare-abroad; 0191 218 1999.
SHOULD I APPLY FOR THE GHIC STRAIGHTAWAY?
If you still have a valid EHIC, then you can continue to use it in most countries until its expiry date. If you don’t have an EHIC, or it is due to expire within six months, you can order a GHIC – valid for five years – for yourself, your partner and any dependent children via https://www.ghic.org.uk. Note that this links to the NHS website, which is based on the EHIC portal. So, until it is updated, you may find references to EHIC.
ANYTHING
FOR?
The GHIC is issued free of charge, so do not use third-party websites that offer to provide you with one for a fee. Use only the NHS via https://www. ghic.org.uk and no others.