EI11 cover refused in Rhodes Greece

[LOVELYDOVEY05]

Friends of ours went to Rhodes for a week in April. Taken ill but asked to pay 1000 Euros . Luckily they were going home in 2 days and just waited till they got home but not ideal.

Was it an E111 or an EHIC card? E111s have been obsolete for some time.

What about their travel insurance? It hasnt been an E111 for many years.

EHIC only allows you to be treated as a local though. If the locals pay, so do you. It's not travel insurance (although even then, you will usually have to pay an excess).

Does it not depend on whether they had private care or not. Do their own residents have to pay for treatment?

Yes it was an EHIC

www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcareabroad/countryguide/Pages/healthcareinGreece.aspx depends on where they were treated. It's an EHIC card though not E111

So many misconceptions about EHIC. Not E111 - that went out 15 years ago.

EHIC gives you the same rights to STATE medical care as someone permanently resident in Rhodes. If a Greek person pays a fee towards seeing the doctor, getting a prescription, having tests, you pay it too and you can't claim it back under EHIC. (Although your insurer may pay out depending on the amount).

EHIC only covers state care. In the UK the distinction between the NHS and private medicine is very clear. In other countries it isn't. Other countries like Greece contract with some doctors to provide state services. So you could have a health centre where half the GPs are state, half are private. Same in hospitals.

Charges over 1000 euros suggests that the person would have been treated as a private patient in a private clinic, or a private room in a state hospital.

This is from pixie’s NHS link

Was it a private facility? (I suspect it’s hard to tell )

Depends on the treatment and where you go. An ehic only entitles you to the same treatment as a local might receive free, not free treatment completely. If they did pay some of it may yet be recoverable under ehic rules. Did they not have travel insurance as well?

did friend have travel insurance?

if not, serves them right. They should be grateful it was no worse.

BTW Greece is what happens when not enough people pay taxes. Think about it next time you click on that certain large online retailer....