EHIC and EHIC-E cards

Health Care & Carte Vitale
1

Hi, just to give a little background I moved here permanently in Oct 2018 and received my Carte Vitale in April this year, thanks to my UK State pensioner and S1.

I have been in possession of an E111 and later an EHIC card for a number of years. I followed the advice given on this page:
https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/healthcare-abroad/moving-abroad/planning-your-healthcare/

which contains the following information:

Once you have registered your S1 in the country you’re moving to, you’ll be entitled to apply for and use a UK-issued EHIC to access state-funded necessary medical treatment when you visit other EEA countries.

You cannot apply online for a UK-issued EHIC. Instead, you’ll need to request an EHIC-E application form with Overseas Healthcare Services.

After receiving my Carte Vitale, I rang Overseas Healthcare Services to ask specifically for an EHIC-E card, which they arranged to send out to me. When it arrived, I found it was identical in every respect to my existing EHIC card. I contacted them again and they sent out another - still identical. The only difference in each card is the identification number of the card, on the bottom line.

Last month I contacted them again and spoke to someone who seemed to understand what I was asking for but was unable to tell me whether there is any difference in text in the card, ie to show that it is an EHIC-E card. They arranged for one to be sent to me. Once again, there seems no obvious difference to my existing card.

EHIC
EHIC1000×620 200 KB

I would like to ask if anyone in possession of an EHIC-E card would be able to confirm or otherwise whether the above pic is identical to theirs, please?

2

Hi Peter and welcome to the forum.

Your card is identical to mine. :relaxed:

3

Surely the answer is simple?
It depends on your residency address for which government department you apply to.
My UK state pension was claimed via the UK overseas department as I am a european/French resident.it is identical to that of a UK resident who claimed in the UK.

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4

I think the only thing that’s different is the application procedure. If you live in the UK you apply online, if you live abroad I don’t think you can,.
The card you get is the same, and it does the same job. It may need to be logged differently on their system, due to you being under the Overseas Health division not the national healthcare division.
I wouldn’t worry about it.

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5

I wouldn’t stress about it, they could be redundant soon.:grinning:

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6

Another way of reading that text is that it is it the application form that is called EHIC-E, not the card. So, for example, if you were a UK resident the application form would be EHIC-U and if a posted worker to some non-EU country EHIC-P. But you’d get the same card.

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7

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I have a camping-car and drift outside France from time to time and it’s reassuring to know that the card will be valid in the event of needing it!