British university students in EU after Brexit

[theDudesmummy]

Hi, I have also posted this in the Brexit topic, but thought it might be of help here too for anyone who has DCs at university in the EU. I have spent way too much of my time finding out about something today that may be of use to others, so I thought I would post and potentially save people some time.

I have two daughters studying at universities in an EU country. They have been there several years already. At present they have EHIC cards of course, for urgent healthcare. They had to show these to register at the universities, and they have used them on a few occasions for healthcare on campus. If we leave the EU with no deal next month it appears that there is a chance that all our EHICs could become invalid. The universities have said nothing and the British embassy in the country they are in doesn’t even seem to know anything about what their status etc will be after a hard Brexit, never mind healthcare cover.

So I started looking for health insurance to cover them for urgent healthcare if they have no EHICs. Most travel insurance only covers you if you are away for a limited time in a year, like 90 days, so no good for students. There are special student travel policies but I kept being told that you had to have taken them out BEFORE you left the UK and started your course abroad, you can’t take them out once you have already left, so that’s no good for us then. The insurance companies seemed woefully clueless in some cases. One even asked me (sternly and judgementally) why they don’t have EHICs and said they "really should". I said of course they do have them, but they may not still have them come 30 March, the answer was “why would that be?”.

Anyway, after all this wasted time I received a tip off about a company called World Nomad who do provide insurance to UK citizens for unlimited time out of the country per year, AND you can take it out after you have left, you don't have to still be here when you take it out. I called them and yes, they do do that. They just need 72 hours notice after application for the policy to kick in, so I am planning to call around 25 March should I need to…

[MadeinBelfast]

Thanks, that's really useful. Just another thing that wasn't thought through fully before the vote 🙁