Except Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein are all members of the EHIC scheme but aren't members of the EU and the NHS has reciprocal agreements with Armenia, Australia, Barbados, Bosnia, British Virgin Islands, Falklands, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Jersey, Macedonia, Montenegro, Montserrat, New Zealand, St Helena, Serbia and Turks & Caicos which allow British citizens to also get medical treatment in those countries as they would in EHIC countries.
Tens of thousands of journeys abroad are made every year by UK residents with the USA being the third most visited destination. Visitors to the USA don't get free healthcare, they buy travel insurance or increasingly get it included with their bank accounts. You can pick up £15,000,000 of health cover for a 7 day trip to the USA for under £23 for an average family of four (we checked) so EHIC is hardly a deal breaker when you're paying thousands for a family holiday.
wonkotsane is an author at Bloggers4UKIP.
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Bucks_Pensioner 72p · 467 weeks ago
And it is a very good service; My wife needs regular blood tests and when we visited Sydney she had them done at the local hospital on production of her passport and was asked "Where are you staying? We could phone through the results to your hotel to save you having to come back tomorrow for them".
When we got to Melbourne, no problem, there were the previous results on the computer so no further identity checks were needed.
Unlike the NHS which managed to lose all the papers relating to her treatment between two hospitals some 5 miles apart (yes they are still using paper!).
DICK R · 467 weeks ago