E111 form - is it needed?

[NappyChange]

Just about to buy travel insurance for me, DH and DD for our first trip abroad. In addition to this, do we need an E111 form? Heard of it, but never had one. Where do you get them from?

You will need to the department of health website and find the European Health Insurance Card, which replaced the E111 a while ago. It says it is free, but I had to pay a fee for ours last year, so they could have changed that. It is always worth doing, as better safe than sorry. Ask your insurer what they advise too, as your policy may be so good you don't need the EHIC card.

Yes, You can order it on line. These days you get a nice laminated card too. If you're travelling in any of the 27 EU states it is wise to have it. Sometimes insurance ends up being invalid or your costs are more than it covers etc and you might want the NHS equivalent in say Romania.

Rach, we replaced our EIII with that and as far as I remember it was free for all 5 children and me.

It's no longer an E111. It's a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). You can get application forms from Post Offices. They can take up to 3 weeks to come. On a recent trip to France, DD1 had bronchitis, and was sent to hospital by a doctor. Although our EHIC cards hadn't arrived by the time we'd gone on holiday, the hospital gave us an address to send photocopies of the DD1's card to when we got back to England. We weren't charged for any treatment. Would always have holiday insurance aswell, to cover any treatment not covered by an EHIC. Don't know if perhaps insurance companies won't pay out if it's something not covered by the EHIC? It was certainly easier using the card than it would have been to make an insurance claim. Hope this garbled post makes sense?!
I should have just said "Yes. Post Offices"
Hope you have a good holiday!

They are now EHIC cards which you can apply for online, by phone or post for each person. www.ehic.org.uk/Internet/home.do If you need treatment you may not have to pay an excess beforehand , unlike Travel Insurance, and insurance may not fully pay out without you having one as costs should be lower.

x posts, sorry!

By all means take this form with you but ALWAYS take out travel insurance. This form will not cover you to get you and your family back to the UK, accommodation costs if there is to be a long hospital stay etc, etc. All of these would be covered by travel insurance.