Yes, and the free card in your wallet is the reason people think otherwise. A GHIC will get you treated in a French or Spanish state hospital at the same price a local pays. What it will not do is fly you home afterwards, and that is the bill that turns a broken ankle in the Alps into a five-figure problem.
We see this gap in our own data. In our 2026 survey of 549 UK travellers, Europe was the most popular overseas destination, chosen by 30%, yet 23% of respondents held no travel insurance at all, and a further 13% relied on cover bundled with their bank account without having compared it. The card feels like enough. It is not.
What does a GHIC actually cover in Europe?
The UK Global Health Insurance Card replaced the old EHIC after Brexit for most UK residents. It gives you medically necessary, state-provided healthcare in EU countries, plus Switzerland and a handful of others, at the same cost a local resident pays, which is often free or heavily discounted.
Medically necessary is the phrase that does the heavy lifting. It means treatment that cannot reasonably wait until you get home, including emergency care and flare-ups of pre-existing conditions. It does not mean treatment you travelled specifically to receive, and it does not mean private clinics, which in tourist areas are often the first place you will be taken.
The card is free from the NHS website, covers only the named holder so children need their own, and lasts until the printed expiry date. If you are still carrying an EHIC, check that date carefully.
What does a GHIC not cover?
This is where the wallet card runs out of road. A GHIC covers state medical treatment and nothing else. The gaps are exactly the costs that hurt:
- Repatriation home. Neither the GHIC nor an EHIC pays a penny towards a medically escorted flight back to the UK, and that is the single largest cost you can face.
- Private treatment. If the nearest or only available care is a private clinic, the card does not apply.
- Cancellation and curtailment. Cutting a trip short, or never leaving, is not a medical cost, so the card ignores it.
- Lost or stolen baggage, money and documents.
- Mountain rescue and search and rescue, which state systems often do not fund.
The numbers make the case better than any warning. Association of British Insurers figures put the average overseas medical claim at around £1,528, but a medical evacuation from within Europe runs to tens of thousands: repatriation from Spain now averages around £45,000.
The ABI has cited a case where a GHIC covered 80% of treatment after a fall in France, and the traveller was still left with a £16,000 bill for the stretcher flight home. The card did its job. It just does not do this one.
GHIC or travel insurance: which do I need?
Both, because they do different jobs. The card discounts state medical care inside Europe. Insurance covers everything the card leaves on the table: repatriation, private treatment, cancellation, baggage and personal liability. They are complementary, not alternatives.
There is a practical reason to carry both rather than treating insurance as the only one that matters. Many insurers reduce or waive the medical excess if you hold a valid GHIC and use it, because it lowers their bill too. So the card can make your insurance cheaper to claim on, not redundant.
The confusion here is common, and it is not the traveller’s fault. In our 2026 survey, 26% of respondents told us they find it hard to understand what their policies actually cover. The GHIC-versus-insurance question is exactly the kind of thing that gets misread, which is why it is worth being blunt about who does what.
