Today has been one of those days, you know the sort where nothing works, and even less goes right.
I still haven’t got the health sorted, on a group on face book somebody had had the same problem and they e-mailed and it was sorted straight away. So I thought I would do the same with the assistance of Google.
So email sent and I receive a reply, it is a cut and paste from the website, explaining who is entitled to health cover.
Thank you, I know that!
I send another email, saying that I have been with all required documents and they asked for a social security number, I receive a reply stating that they do not deal with social security
I email again saying I do not want them to deal with social security, I just want my cartao de utente.
I receive another reply saying that they have sent me the information required to obtain my cartao.
Thank you, I know, but they still won´t give it to me with out an extra number.
When I receive an email suggesting that I take my S1 form with me, I nearly explode, The S1 form is for retired people from the UK, I now want to scream. But instead I just shout at the screen and think that this is wasting my time and energy and the final little bit of sanity that I have.
I give up and instead, forward all the e-mails and a description of my problem to the Advogada with a please can you sort this out for us.
(it turns out she gets the same information)
But the very real problem is, we have no health cover, we are entitled to it, but with out the card, we will not get it and will be charged if we use any sort of health care. We did have the EHIC card from France, but that is no longer valid, there is no choice especially with John working the way he is, we need to get private cover. We have looked in to this before but decided not to bother, but now we have no choice.
We take out the cover and are actually quite pleased we did, it costs 44 Euro per month and covers both of us and as it is from a French company they have the same rules, which means no pre existing conditions are excluded.
Maybe all this was a blessing in disguise.
Maybe!
Please take a look at our new facebook page
Crikey how frustrating at least you eventually got there!
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still not in the National Health Service though, but hopefully, one day……..
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Hi, I just took out private insurance yesterday with Fidelidade but it was very expensive!! Might I ask which insurance company you used? Sounds good although it might be my age that is the problem as I am 60 already (really?). I have learnt that private health insurance and most especially in Lisbon is the only way to go!
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we are 48 and 55. We are with Mgen, we still have to pay for for treatment but not full price, the price of this insurance goes up in age groups
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Hi Jenny I have looked for the company you are with and I cannot find a application on line for them did you Have to do it by phone
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we went into an assurance broker and they found them, apparently very new to portugal
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Jenny, we recently visited our Centro do Saudé to register.
We took our Residency certificate, Passports, Contribuinte document, & EHIC (expired 2015). 20mins later we were signed up to the health centre & had our piece of paper with our identification de Utente.
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thanks, it really does seem to depend on where you live, but I did not take our contribuinte with us, so maybe I will try again
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