I'm an English ex-pat - I spend most of my time in Poland (at least 8 months a year).
The question is, am I entitled to medical care in a public hospital in Poland? I pay voluntary NI contributions to the UK system and I'm up to date with them.
If not, what the heck should I do? Private medical insurance?
You should have your "European Health Card" (This replaced the E111). If you are paying NI contributions in the UK you are covered for treatment throughout the EU. This includes all forms of treatment but excludes repatriation to the UK by air ambulance etc, for this you will need private insurance.
Hope you don't mind but I decided to check the National Insurance helpline just to be double certain. The Inland Revenue seem fairly unanimous that since I'm currently resident in Poland, my British contributions unfortunately don't cover me for hospital treatment. The E111 is really only for tourists.
If I weren't working, I could fill in an 'E106' and I would be covered, although this is really for people who are going abroad to retire.
So - looks like I have to start paying ZUS contributions. Bleedin racket or what?
Just a thought, if you go self-employed here, there is a offer on at the moment where you only pay 50% of your zus (National Insurance) contributions for the 1st two years. And then you will be automatically covered for health care along with claiming a lot of tax back for expenses.
Poland and the UK have an agreement where all essential health care is free. So poles can use the NHS, and i can use the polish health service. didnt know about it untill i had to go to hospital after dislocating my shoulder-ouch:(
The Yanks should take notice about how ****** socialized, "FREE", medicine is. That left-wing-pinko-loon in the White House is trying to ram that crap up the backsides of the ignorants there.
....Yeah, The French...the gleaming beacons of socialzed medicine...The champion every socialist swine should aspire to be. .But everything wrong with the Brit and Canadian system....I personally know of people who had to go to VETERINARIANS to have "black" medical care because they could not get a HUMAN doctor appointment. Not one-off occurrences, mind you, either. Pretty F'ing sad, I'd say. Animals often get better care than humans. People should at least get the same level care as animals.
Just the passport, if you need long term treatment, u either have to present your usual details (nip, persol ect), or you may have quite a bill. Emergency treatment is free of course for the Brits, and most people im guessing. I'll try and find out more.
Only EU members. Everyone else pays full price if you don't have insurance or haven't paid for ZUS.
I am not complaining about this fact simply making sure nobody thinks they will get free care when they won't. Funny enough even the crappy, dirty public system hospitals charge as much as the nicer Private places like Damian. If you have to pay might as well go to the nicer place.
Yup, though i need to dig up this info about the Brits here, I forget the agreement to two governments have.
Well, it was actually really difficult to get a straight answer from either the Polish or the British SS so in the end I took citzenship and started paying ZUS. I'm hoping this will cover me if I get hit by a bus or something.
As far as I understand it, when you cease to be UK resident in terms of taxation, then your insurance under the NHS will stop. That's the point when you need to be paying ZUS - but it seems to depend on just how much they bother to check. In theory, only emergency care should be free - follow up care should be provided by the home country. But Brits for certain have been using the EHIC card for routine stuff (I use it to see a doctor here, no problem) and the NFZ appears to be accepting it - so who knows?
In the UK you show them nothing. Whether you are a tourist, an immigrant, a visting worker, a citizen or from the planet Zod, you just turn up at a UK hospital and get treated, no questions asked.
Unlike the US, we don't leave people to die in the street if they are unable to afford health care.
