In a previous post on driving your Motorhome in Europe I suggested that you take with you your European Health Insurance Card and that is still very good advice but with one caveat; please make sure it is still valid.

What I have only just realised is that the European Health Insurance Card is not valid indefinitely, it does expire after a few years, so please check the expiry date and make sure that you renew it prior to driving your Motorhome throughout Europe.

The health insurance card is very important because it covers you for medical treatment in all the European Economic Area (EEA) member countries and although Switzerland is not a member of the EEA the card is also valid there as well.  This card replaced the E111 form that we used to use, although this had to be renewed annually.

Below is a list of all the countries that allow use of the card so as you can see it is extremely useful.

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland (Eire), Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands,   Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland.

The message is clear; if yours is running out then renew it and if you haven’t got one then apply for one immediately.

You can apply for the card by clicking on this link