Health Insurance

borich_planner · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:27

My girlfriends mum is in ICU in Switerland with Kidney failure, she had a recent transplant and something has gone wrong. It would appear that she has no travel insurance and my I put my g/f on the first flight out there. If she has no insurance and they need to operate what happens?

Morgoth · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:29

Put her house on the market.

The Halk · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:29

This might help?

Jono · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:30

Morgoth said:
Put her house on the market.

Harsh.

EHIC does cover Switzerland though. I think.
Edit- I was righteth.

However, it won't cover travel costs - so if she needs to be shipped back to the UK in a helicopter attached to a dialysis machine... THEN be prepared to face a rather large bill.

alx · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:32

As above, apply her for a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) very quickly if she doesn't actually have one.

The Halk · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:32

It does, it's listed in the link I posted.

I don't know if you need to have applied for the card in advance though.

Perhaps it would be wise to contact the British Embassy or Consulate or whatever the department is that helps idiots abroad who get themselves into stupid situations without taking a little bit of care in advance. I do wish your girlfriends mother well, all the same.

alx · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:34

borich_planner said:
My girlfriends mum is in ICU in Switerland with Kidney failure, she had a recent transplant and something has gone wrong. It would appear that she has no travel insurance and my I put my g/f on the first flight out there. If she has no insurance and they need to operate what happens?

Lets hope she's covered by the EHIC, otherwise you'll have to pay for the operation and post op care which could end up being very costly.

borich_planner · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:34

She is Somilian and they don't think that logically sometimes.

alx · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:35

borich_planner said:
She is Somilian and they don't think that logically sometimes.

Does she have a British passport or is she a Somilian national?

borich_planner · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:39

British, but her generation has not intergrated well into western culture, so the basic thing as health insurance has been overlooked by her! I'm fuming

SMN · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:42

The Halk said:
This might help?

And I quote:

Code:

All these countries are in the EEA, apart from Switzerland,
 which has an agreement to provide healthcare for UK and other European citizens.

Thats unfortunate/fortunate (depending). Does an E111 not cover you for this kind of incident in Europe?

borich_planner · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:47

She will fly out and I will do what I can from this end.

stoofa · 21 Jan 2011 at 13:52

This is going to be a harsh lesson.
I've done the research into insurance for people who have had a kidney transplant (mainly because I'm waiting for a kidney myself).
Yes it costs more to insure yourself, but it isn't the earth and when this kind of thing happens you get flown home, which is what you really want.
Behind Japan and possibly the US (I've heard many conflicting things about the US), the UK honestly is at the forefront on renal medicine.

I hope everything gets sorted.

quickshot89 · 21 Jan 2011 at 14:26

When i took ill in Geneva with type 1 diabetes i had my health card, the only thing it does as far as we understood was to make the paperwork shorter, and we had to pay a £25 admin fee

We did get the bill (but it was made invalid from the card and whatnot) it came to £9K for a weeks medical stay in the hospital

Try to get in touch with the embassy asap

borich_planner · 22 Jan 2011 at 14:27

All sorted, all the care she got was under duty of care because it was emergency. Thank god its worked out ok