EHIC warning

The Department of Health is warning EHIC holders to ensure that they renew their cards as millions of cards will expire by the end of the month.

The warning was issued after the department found that only 300,000 cards had been renewed even though 3.3 million are set to expire by the end of March leaving millions of British holidaymakers facing a large number of healthcare bills.

With many Brits already in debt, public health minister, Dawn Primarolo stated that Brits “travelling with an expired EHIC is putting themselves at risk- they will not be covered for basic medical care,” and would end up having to fork out the bills themselves.

He said: “It is vital that UK residents holidaying in Europe carry their EHIC and take out adequate travel insurance to avoid having to pay out unnecessarily for medical costs that could be covered by a valid EHIC.”