Medical Assistance

How does medical assistance work outside the EU?

The right of either move around the EU or live/work in a EU Member State necessarily involve the right for EU citizens to benefit from a medical assistance wherever they go. Indeed, the mutual recognition of EU citizens’ socials’ rights assure that citizens have access to medical assistance within the EU in case of both accident and illness while staying in a Member State different from the one they belong to. Moreover, the European Health Insurance Card help consumers in the tutelage of their rights while travelling for work or study reasons. EU citizens have the right to receive medical treatments in another Member State if this treatment isn’t available in their home Country or requires long time to be offered. In such cases, it’s important to be informed about necessary authorizations, which allow to have medical expensed reimbursed or paid directly by the national health service.

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) is required in order to benefit from medical assistance within the EU, and also to accelerate the reimbursement procedure.
Indeed, before leaving their home Country, Italian citizens need an appropriate form which is properly called “European Health Insurance Card” (EHIC), valid in Italy since 1 November 2004. This card allows Italian citizens to benefit from medical treatments which in the past were covered by different forms (E110, E111). The card is provided and distributed by the Italian Ministry of Economics and Finance to all parties signed up to the nation health service.

In brief, talking about medical assistance within the EU, there are two basic principles:

·      Rights alignment: in case of temporary stay in a EU Member State, people have the right to benefit from an undifferentiated level of medical assistance, apart from the category they belong to (workers, students, pensioners). Everybody who’s insured has the right to be assisted, if necessary, during a temporary stay in every EU Member State.

·      Direct access: every insured person, supplied with his European Health Insurance Card, is entitled to directly contact the appropriate doctor in a different Member State from the one he belongs to, in order to obtain the necessary treatment, only by showing the European Health Insurance Card. By this way, everybody has the right to benefit from the same medical treatments as the residents in that Member State, apart from some highly specialized treatment.