Wes Streeting – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Wes Streeting on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many UK-registered patients received treatment in other European Economic Area countries under the European Health Insurance Card scheme in each of the last five years.

Alistair Burt

The United Kingdom European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) means that people living in the UK are able to travel to the European Economic Area (EEA) safe in the knowledge that they will be able to receive free or reduced cost healthcare should they need it.

EEA countries reimburse the UK for the cost of the National Health Service providing treatment to EEA EHIC holders, just as the UK reimburses other EEA countries for the cost of them providing healthcare to UK EHIC holders.

The Department does not hold information on how many people have used their UK EHIC to obtain state provided healthcare in another EEA country in any 12 month period. This is because data on UK EHIC usage is recorded by individual treatment episode rather than the card holder.