Polish Doctors refuse to take European Health Insurance Card

Just a warning for you all out there, you have ZERO medical in Poland, they will tell you to go private or just refuse to see you. I seen a few and the one or two who will see me wont tell me over the phone if they take the card. Meaning they want to charge private.

In one case they asked if I had fever and will only see me if I have a fever. Not sure whats going on here, perhaps they scared they wont get paid from the fund?

I find this very strange, or is this a form of we wont help forginers.

Anyone else experiance this?

What do you mean "refuse to see you"? You need to be on the rolls of a particular 'family doctor' and that's who you first go to when you're sick. You might call around a few different doctors to see if they will enroll you. Once you're enrolled you see them for free and they're supposed to give you referrals for more specialized care.

Otherwise you go private.

How well do you speak Polish? Most family doctors are not that eager to sign up people who will be difficult to communicate with.....

I'll add. I was at a conference last year where the European Health Card system was the subject of one of the papers. The result was that it's best to not have to ever use it.....

Well thats a game changer for allot of people coming to Poland then.

The whole point of the card is so when you go on holiday to another EU country is to get the same medical treatment as you were at your resident country,

So what happens if you have a contagous virus? You spread it and leave? well mind you the Apteeks wont complain.
Just an senario, not me.

The presentation was about the whole EU, apparently it doesn't work very well anywhere but so few people actually try to use it that the problem remains mostly unknown.

How are you in Poland? private? work? study?

Also private medical care is generally pretty reasonably priced (though finding doctors knowing other languages might be a challenge).

Ouch

Just holidaying

Find out how much a visit would cost, you'll probably be surprised at how cheap it would be. If you know any local people who could translate for you you could probably find it even cheaper.

The European Health Card is intended for covering emergency cases and not a regular treatment, isn't it?

If you are a visitor - i.e. are on holiday in Poland:

1. Any private doctor will see you for 100 pln for a consultation. He will then prescribe whatever you need and you have to pay the full price at the chemist (apteka). You can have your blood tests carried out privately - cost approx 200 pln.

2. The European card is only for cases of 'emergency'(i.e. accident, heart attack, asthma attack - anything that might be considered an emergency) you will get the same treatment in the same hospital as any other Pole. The cost of any treatment is then recouped from your own country. This is clearly stated on the website where you can read what actually it covers you for.

3. You should have holiday cover insurance in cases you need to get back to your own country or have to have private treatment which tour own insurance should pay..

4. If you live and work in Poland and are paying into ZUS - you have the same rights as any other Pole working in Poland.