EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

Is this a change?
Received mail from Gov.uk today stating that anyone with a registered S1 form, can apply for a NEW UK EHIC card that will remain valid from 1st Janaury 2021

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

why if your covered by the s1 form would you need a ehic card or am i missing something

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

Hence the reason for asking if anything is changing?
As far as I understood it a resident of Portugal means that you are entitled to the receive treatment in the Portuguese NHS exactly the same as if you were a Portuguese Citizen??
Apart from sending the bill for any treatment back to the UK for payment, I have never understood what other benefits it gives to an expat living in the EU.
I would think it unlikely that other EU retirees living in the UK dont do the same thing in reverse

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

Maybe of course a sprat to catch a mackerel......means you would be taken off any GP register in the UK, despite not living there.

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

For health cover when temporarily in EU countries other than the one you reside in.

More here on the subject in general, as regards who's eligible for the new UK EHIC cards, what's covered etc : Apply for a free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC)

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

Red
Link does not work for me on opera browser.
But surely if you are a UK passport holder but permanently resident in say Portugal, you should have an EHIC from Portugal not the UK. So Portugal would pay the bill??

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

Looked at that site.......seems to me that anyone not living in the UK, will be covered by either a UK EHIC (if a holder of an S1 form) or a Portuguese EHIC if not covered by an S1 form.
SO where does that leave any visitor to Portugal from the UK??

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

Where they've always been if they had any sense - needing travel insurance.

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

But if correct, that hardly seems fair to me.....................does it you??

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

Perfectly fair, why should Portugal (or any other country) pick up the healthcare costs for visitors from another Country thereby depleting state finances that could be used for the benefit of residents.

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

Doesn't work for me on my browser either :lol: Don't know how I managed to mess that up but here it is again :fingerscrossed: :
Apply for a free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC)

Not in the circumstance that your social welfare is primarily the responsibility of the UK, which it has been hitherto for pensioners and anyone in receipt of other UK welfare benefits. And it was part of the WA (I think) that those in that situation in any EU member state would continue to be the UK's responsibility for the rest of their lives, provided they remained in their current country of residence.

Yes, and especially so as the UK government previously issued written guarantees about various matters of which this was one.

Who do you think it's not fair on and what do you think needs to be done to address that?

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

ok im getting confused ,this is how i have allways thought the way the EHIC card worked when i moved here 15 years ago i already had a UK EHIC card that i thought covererd me as a tourist,when i become a resident in a year my UK EHIC CARD EXPIRED, i then took out a PT ehc card that covererd me if i wanted to travel within the EU .Witch covered me if i wanted to go to the UK ,And trust me that will never happen so why would i neead a EHIC CARD FROM THE UK

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

Assuming you haven't worked or made SS contributions while in Portugal, and that in the interim you became eligible to receive your UK state pension, you ought by rights to have re-registered in the PT health service on a UK-issued S1, at which point they would have become responsible for issuing your EHIC card.

It's not so much a matter of why you need an EHIC card - more a matter of who is (or should be) responsible for issuing it.

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

By issuing it means who pays. I cannot understand how this situation has arisen.
UK health is based on residency. (unless you are a resident of another country in Europe)
But then only if you are already in that country.
As such any Brit becoming a resident of an EU country, after 231st Dec, will not have the benefit of an EHIC, unless individual country by country is agreed.
Does it also give the non resident EHIC holder the right to return to the UK to claim health care there if preferred to the country in which they are resident??
i am not surprised that they want to tear up the WA.

Re: EHIC after 31/Dec 2020
 

The UK has left the EU and is no longer entitled to the benefits of EU membership. I really don't understand why you think UK citizens who don't have protected rights under the Withdrawal Agreement should be entitled to more preferential treatment than a citizen from any other country that isn't a member state of the EU.