If you’re heading to Europe on a business trip or on a holiday, then there are a few things that you will need to consider in order to keep yourself covered. There are a number of different ways to do this, but if you’re an EU citizen, this is made even easier with the various healthcare agreements that have been created across the country. Our quick and easy guide on how to cover yourself whilst in Europe will help you to ensure that you are prepared on your travels.
European Health Insurance Card
If you’re heading to Europe and you are an EU citizen, it is important that you have your EHIC with you. Your European Health Insurance Card can be collected after you fill out a European Health Insurance Card application form (if you don’t already have one or your current one needs to be renewed). This will give you the opportunity to access any public healthcare in the country that you are going to, at the same cost that any residents of that country would pay. For example, if you were traveling to England, you would receive public healthcare free on the NHS as long as you have your EHIC. While some countries may make you pay up front for any healthcare if you were to need it, despite having a European Health Insurance Card, you will be able to claim any fees back.
Travel Insurance
While a European Health insurance Card is something that you should definitely bring with you for your trip to Europe, that doesn’t mean that you should rely on it. It is always important to ensure that you are totally covered for your trip, and to do this you should make sure that you take out travel insurance along the way. Ensuring that you have travel insurance will provide you with extra cover not only for healthcare, but also for other things such as lost or stolen baggage, trip cancellation or delays, and private health insurance plans. Travel insurance will also cover any unforeseen events such as you or a family member having a medical emergency, medical evacuation, if your travel supplier goes out of business, bad weather, a plane crash, or in some cases even a terrorist incident. There are a number of different options that you can choose from when searching for travel insurance, and it is always important to have this as a part of your vital holiday documentation in order to ensure that you are totally covered.
In some cases, you may find that your EHIC won’t cover you for issues such as emergency helicopter rescue at a ski-resort/mountain, whereas your travel insurance will. However if you are looking to take part in any extreme sports or other types of dangerous activities, that you find a travel insurance that will definitely cover you for it, by reading the small print. You can purchase travel insurance with some companies up to one day before you go on holiday, but it is far more efficient to ensure that you are definitely covered by booking your travel insurance a week or more in advance of the trip.
