Clifton

I'm not quite sure where to start with this topic, so I'll try to start at a rather high level in hopes of not limiting the replies.

The questions are for citizens of EU countries, if you wouldn't mind mentioning where you're from, if it makes a difference.

In your health coverage, is length of residency a factor in the amount of coverage you'd receive? (say you moved to Asia for years, and just now came back.. how are you covered?)

- and -

If you're from one EU country but reside long-term in another, is health coverage portable? transferable? universal? a mess?

Any informative sites or sources you may have would be

This just all relates to a move we've just begun actively entertaining, but not through an employer. We have been living outside the EU to date, but both of us have citizenship with Ireland while considering Holland or Belgium as a residence. Job skills are transferable and not within the concerns of this post.

Thanks!

Clifton

Oh - obviously I am clearly not knowledgeable in this area and even the assumptions I made to form the questions could be totally incorrect.

So what should have been the first question - how similar and/or connected IS health care provisioning across the EU?

Padraig

You can get my (Irish) perspective on it by going to http://www.ehic.ie/ and exploring the links. It gives thumbnail sketches of the entitlement to healthcare in all EU states.

kenderina

I'm Spanish and live in Spain. Length of residency has nothing to do with the amount of covering here.
The covering is the same for everybody, the difference would be in the retirement pension not in the health coverage.

About the residence long term in another EU country, I think each country has their own rules, but in general it is not transferable. I mean, you receive the coverage of the country where you are paying for it. If it is not long term, then yes, you have an european card and you have the covering of your own country in any of the countries of the EU.

hetismij

I am British but have lived in the Netherlands for the last 24 years.
Here the system changed a couple of years ago. Now you need to take out insurance. Everyone over the age of 18, and those younger in employment, must have their own insurance cover. Children up to the age of 18 are covered by their parents policies, if they are not working.
You are free to choose the company that provides the insurance. There is a compulsory basic policy which is pretty much the same price whichever company you choose, which covers basic GP treatment, most medicines and hospital care. You can take out extra insurance to cover extra dental care, extra physiotherapy treatments, alternative treatments etc etc. The price varies per company, and these extra policies can be taken out with a different company to your basic insurance.
We also pay a chunk of money through our taxes every month to further cover us should we become chronically ill, or permanently disabled, plus a chunk of money which tops up the healthcare pot.
If you are not insured you will not receive anything other than the most urgent treatment. Even then you are likely to receive the bill afterwards, and be fined for not having coverage. We have to produce proof of insurance before registering with a doctor, hospital, or other health care provider.

alanRow

<<< If you're from one EU country but reside long-term in another, is health coverage portable? transferable? universal? a mess? >>>

The crucial word here is COUNTRY

There are around 50 countries in Europe and they all have their own rules.

For citizens of EU / EEA countries there is some reciprocal arrangements whereby some medical cover is provided in emergency cases

kerouac

In France, legal residents have the normal health coverage and normally a mutual insurance policy through their employer that covers just about everything else. Normally, you will never even see a hospital bill, and most pharmacies will give you the medicine with no payment, since they are paid directly by the government and the mutual.

As for moving away and moving back, my mother had left France in 1945 and became immediately eligible for normal health coverage the moment I was able to dig up proof that she had worked for one year in France in 1943. I was impressed.

Undocumented aliens with no revenue are eligible for free health care as well, through a different accounting system. This shocks some taxpayers.

Anybody who wants health care without leaving a paper trail can also get treatment at hospital emergency rooms, and this is beginning to irritate people even more, since most of these incidents are not emergencies.

Basically, anybody living or passing through France is taken care of medically one way or another. Of course the EU countries have agreements through their various medical systems for payments.

ira

Hi K,

>Anybody who wants health care without leaving a paper trail can also get treatment at hospital emergency rooms, and this is beginning to irritate people even more, since most of these incidents are not emergencies.<

We have a similar problem in the US.

Carlux

One comment on France, which has recently changed its rules, supposedly because France was not following a European directive that indicates that Europeans can change their country of residence, but must be able to show proof of health insurance. Also as a way to try to cut down the deficit in the health insurance system.

Until late 2007 all French residents were covered by the health system. Either your worked and made payments, or were unemployed or retired, and didn’t. Those who came here from other European countries on retirement became part of the French system, although their expenses were covered by their country of origin, through a system of transfer payments. Those who had not worked in France, sometimes non-Europeans, but often people taking early retirement from countries like Britain, made contributions based on their taxable income

In fact it was not possible to have private health insurance, except for the ‘top up’ insurance that supplements the basic Assurance Maladie. Those of us who had had private insurance were forced to give it up around 1999 – usually with great relief because the national insurance system was much cheaper.

Then the rules changed - the original directive actually said that Europeans who had not worked in France and were not retired were going to lose their coverage and had to have private insurance. This caused great concern to a lot of people here, but it was later rescinded, and anyone who was already in the system was allowed to stay. HOWEVER, anyone now coming from another European country where they have worked, but not working in France, is not allowed to join the French system until they have 5 years residence here. They must buy private insurance for that time.

As far as I understand, if you did belong to the system, you, like Kerouac’s mother, can get back in.
And of course if you are working here and contributing, you are automatically in the system.

There is some information in the following article, although it is mainly geared towards British

http://tinyurl.com/66xnml
Also, in French;
http://tinyurl.com/2yaocg

Clifton

Thanks everyone for your replies. We're at the infancy phase and just trying to understand eligibility and what kind of costs are involved with the basics right now. Some things like housing are pretty easy to research, HC costs have been a little trickier. Getting some of the terms down helps in knowing what to search for.

hetismij, your detailed response was particularly helpful, as was the site padraig linked in.

PatrickLondon

Two routes:

- either you are eligible to be issued with a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) by your own EEA country, so that other EEA countries will treat you as they do their own citizens for healthcare purposes when you're travelling short term

- or you are accepted as a long-term resident or worker by the government of the EEA country you travel to.

Your own EEA country might have some sort of residential requirement for issuing an EHIC in the first place; and of course the "receiving" EEA country will have its own requirements for accepting long-term residents.

The UK's description of what's covered is at
http://www.nhs.uk/countryguidance/Pa...countries.aspx

It's always worth having extra travel insurance to cover things like emergency repatriation, which would obviously not be covered by any national healthcare scheme.