FACUA denounces website charging to renew European health cards

ONE of Spain’s main consumer protection organisations has warned about a website which charges €59 to renew a European health card used to cover emergency medical treatment when travelling within the EU, and which gives the impression of being the official platform for doing so.

Although the company’s activity is not, technically, illegal, it is highly misleading, because there is no charge for applying for or replacing an EU health card – the €59 fee is merely that which the firm charges for doing so on applicants’ behalf.

And there is no need to pay someone else to do so, since the process via the official channel – the Social Security office – is just as simple.

FACUA-Consumers in Action says the website uses different addresses, and in the small print of each, explains that they are the property of a company named Servione Servicios Generales, S.L.

This has since changed its name to Momentum Euroconsulting, S.L.

Both are domiciled in the Greater Madrid region satellite town of Alcobendas.

The site – for which one of the addresses is tsetarjetasanitariaeuropea.online and another is tarjetasanitariaeuropeaonline.com – uses the same colours and font as the web page for the European Commission, and includes the European flag symbol, meaning it is easy for internet users to assume they are using an official channel and to pay for a service which is, in fact, free of charge.

Although the site does in fact confirm the ‘service’ is run by a private company, it is in a much smaller font and in a position that does not guarantee the user will see it prior to completing and filing the application, which is considered to be a case of ‘unfair competition’ and ‘misleading practice’, in accordance with Spanish legislation known as the Disloyal Competition Law, in force since 1991.

Anyone living in Spain of any nationality whose healthcare entitlement comes from their Social Security contributions – via employment, self-employment or a situation reflecting this, such as being on the dole, in receipt of maternity, paternity or sickness pay or, shortly, anyone registered as a non-professional carer – is permitted to hold a European health card.

The Tarjeta Sanitaria Europea is the same as the one known to British nationals as an EHIC, only that it is issued from Spain rather than the UK, meaning cross-border payment for medical treatment is made by the Spanish authorities rather than the British government.

Issued by every European Union member State, the European health card entitles the holder to medical care in a member State other than the one they habitually reside in for emergencies – normally defined as any necessary treatment which cannot wait until the end of the traveller’s planned stay.

Non-EU nationals living in EU countries, where their healthcare is provided by their country of residence, are also entitled to hold these, meaning British nationals who are in possession of a Spanish-issued European health card may still use it when they visit other member States, even after Brexit.

They are obtained by filing an application online via the Social Security (Seguridad Social) website, and are delivered by ordinary post.

Once they expire, they can then be renewed via the same process.

EHIC holders, in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, have also reported similar misleading practices of private firms charging to renew or replace health cards via websites which give the impression of being an official channel, but none of the 28 member States charges for issue or replacement of these cards, meaning if a fee is requested from any website, it is being operated by a company, not by the health authority in question.

 

Photograph: FACUA