The Big Fat Spanish Medical Insurance Debacle

Even though Spain – like the rest of other EU member countries – is currently suffering from economic hardship, should it’s hospitals be “conning” more affluent EU citizens as a means of bailing out its own economy? 

By: Ringo Bones 

As an European Union citizen, have you ever been forced to pay for your emergency medical treatment in Spain after they refused to accept your E.H.I.C.? Well, back around May 31, 2013, the news story came out that most Spanish hospitals had been conning more affluent E.U. citizens – especially British tourists – into paying for emergency treatment or charging it on their current travel insurance even though their E.H.I.C. covers it. Even though Spain – like those other E. U. member countries – is currently suffering from economic hardship, should their hospitals be “conning” more affluent E.U. citizens as a means of an E.U. sourced economic bailout even though the said E.U. citizens’ E.H.I.C. covers it? 

The E.H.I.C. – or the European Health Insurance Card – is specifically designed to allow all European Union citizens the right to have emergency medical care under existing European Union laws. However, it has recently came out that Spanish hospitals have been refusing to accept the card therefore conning patients into paying hospital bills and insisting tourists to claim the incurred costs of their emergency medical treatments on their existing travel insurance policies. 

Under E.U. law any British citizen is entitled to free medical care within the European Union. The cost of any care is then billed to the U.K.’s N.H.S.; however Spain has taken upon itself to reject the E.H.I.C. and charge British nationals for any treatment and advice them that they should claim it on their existing travel insurance policy. Isn’t this the most thuggish way for Spain to ask for the Brussels for an economic bailout? 

Of Therapeutic Vacations and Travel Insurance

Even though the therapeutic vacation side of the travel industry remains very much an unexplored niche market, will travel insurance providers’ policies on preexisting conditions hinder its economic viability?


By: Ringo Bones


Before being called as such, the concept behind therapeutic vacations and / or therapeutic holidays probably predates the invention of the wheel. When prehistoric men and women set off in pilgrimages – religious or otherwise – for the travel destinations supposed feel-good factor. These days, there are a myriad or more travel destinations that seems to offer therapeutic effects – whether via religious miracles or well-established hagiographic pedigree – just waiting to be tapped by the post-credit crunch travel industry. Sadly, the concept of therapeutic vacations may well remain just a dream due to an overwhelming majority of travel insurance providers’ preoccupation with their policyholders’ preexisting conditions.

The issue of insurance providers somewhat unhealthy fetish over their policyholders’ preexisting conditions became a cause célèbre during the height of President Obama’s campaign for healthcare reform in America. Cancer survivors being recommended by their doctors for therapeutic vacations or therapeutic holidays at present usually can’t afford it due to the fact that their insurance providers provide them with travel insurance policies as expensive as or even more expensive than their planned therapeutic vacations.

Knowledgeable individuals involved in such quandary are now questioning whether insurance underwriters and risk assessors under the tenure of big insurance companies truly understand the true nature of risks faced by cancer survivors. Blatantly so when the hike in travel insurance premiums doesn’t seem to mathematically coincide with the perceived risks using the latest risk assessment analytical tools at our disposal. Looks like your planned trip to visit the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, India just to be grateful after your ordeal of a decade-long battle with leukemia might be a very expensive proposition from a travel insurance perspective.