Importance of having a European Health Insurance Card...
Importance of having a European Health Insurance Card...
Author
Discussion

bazza_g

Original Poster:

73 posts

254 months

Thursday 18th June 2009
quotequote all
biggrin More of a cautionary tale than anything else I suppose - I would like to stress the importance of having your Euro Health Insurance Card and Travel insurance when you go abroad. Even with the best plans and organisation things do go pear-shaped sometimes....

Early hours of Sat morning in the Team Langoustine site we already had one man down with a drunk knee problem and the circuit medical centre ambulance was called - that arrived and in the process of moving beer bottles out of the way in our bit of the campsite I managed to stand on one (wearing shoes), it broke and a bit chunk of glass went through the back of my ankle....

I jumped in with him expecting some quick stitches and back on the beer but after some checks was told that I needed an operation to repair my Achillies Tendon that the glass had sliced into!

...and that was the end of my weekend! In Le Mans hospital (which is fantastic by the way) Sat - Monday, great nurses/docs/surgeons and facilities - you could have eaten off the floor is really was that clean.

Anyway - upon discharge presentation of the EHIC pays the first 80% of the bill, YOU are responsible for the remaining 20% (in my case another 600euros) if you don't have seperate travel insurance, which I happened to have through my work.

I'll be back again next year for sure, LM2010 will be Epic - I might even get to see the race!

Please, please, please remember your Euro Health Insurance cards and travel insurance thumbup

Edited by bazza_g on Thursday 18th June 19:04

Gingerbread Man

9,173 posts

242 months

Thursday 18th June 2009
quotequote all
Funnily enough a friend didn't have one for this year. I've put him on the right track just yesterday.

Ash 996 GT2

3,836 posts

270 months

Thursday 18th June 2009
quotequote all
Hope the tendon is ok, and thanks for the warning, although I had mine with me.

BigMans197

1,193 posts

236 months

Thursday 18th June 2009
quotequote all
Gingerbread Man said:
Funnily enough a friend didn't have one for this year.
Your joking? Thats just plain irresponsible..............

Gingerbread Man

9,173 posts

242 months

Thursday 18th June 2009
quotequote all
BigMans197 said:
Gingerbread Man said:
Funnily enough a friend didn't have one for this year.
Your joking? Thats just plain irresponsible..............
Yeah, could have been a car crash.

LeightonBuzzard

463 posts

207 months

Thursday 18th June 2009
quotequote all
were you the people next to us on Dairon? (stickered up silver e46 coup)?

The Leaper

5,669 posts

235 months

Thursday 18th June 2009
quotequote all
1. Passport:done
2. EHIC:done
3. Travel insurance:done
4. Anything else important (beer first maybe?)

That's the way to do it!

R.

RedexR

1,861 posts

243 months

Thursday 18th June 2009
quotequote all
Some post offices still have the normal forms (all done free) , otherwise you have to do it on line which costs a tenner I think ? I did mine before going , just.

Swoxy

2,842 posts

239 months

Thursday 18th June 2009
quotequote all
It's free via www.ehic.org.uk.

Edited by Swoxy on Thursday 18th June 21:14

zs

3,142 posts

266 months

Thursday 18th June 2009
quotequote all
Ash 996 GT2 said:
Hope the tendon is ok, and thanks for the warning, although I had mine with me.
+1,+1,+1 thumbup

bazza_g

Original Poster:

73 posts

254 months

Thursday 18th June 2009
quotequote all
Ash 996 GT2 said:
Hope the tendon is ok, and thanks for the warning, although I had mine with me.
Cheers, the tendon will be fine - just not the fastest thing to fix! Good job the 335 is an auto!

bernhund

3,798 posts

222 months

Saturday 20th June 2009
quotequote all
I did 63 days in intensive care at Le Mans 2006 after a car crash. An intensive care bed for the night was £1500 then. This meant that if I hadn't had travel insurance, I'd have picked up a 20 grand bill. Not good when I couldn't work for 7 months afterwards!
I posted the warnings up then too. Some bank accounts give it to you free, there's no excuse to not have it.
Good luck with the heel, nasty little area that!

markmullen

15,877 posts

263 months

Saturday 20th June 2009
quotequote all
I was rushed into the drivers medical centre last year having had an anaphalactic (sp?) shock, once they'd fired me back up with adrenaline a quick wave of the EHIC card made all the paperwork disappear with a Gallic shrug, job done.

ellroy

7,825 posts

254 months

Saturday 20th June 2009
quotequote all
markmullen said:
I was rushed into the drivers medical centre last year having had an anaphalactic (sp?) shock, once they'd fired me back up with adrenaline a quick wave of the EHIC card made all the paperwork disappear with a Gallic shrug, job done.
Never mind that mark are you selling Hindmarsh a car then? Heard you mentioned on the radio over there

markmullen

15,877 posts

263 months

Saturday 20th June 2009
quotequote all
ellroy said:
markmullen said:
I was rushed into the drivers medical centre last year having had an anaphalactic (sp?) shock, once they'd fired me back up with adrenaline a quick wave of the EHIC card made all the paperwork disappear with a Gallic shrug, job done.
Never mind that mark are you selling Hindmarsh a car then? Heard you mentioned on the radio over there
hehe John was in yesterday, and is coming back on Monday bounce

ellroy

7,825 posts

254 months

Saturday 20th June 2009
quotequote all
Good skills son good skills! (Mind you put some black and white stripes on it for him.....)