EHIC, E109/E121 Health Card Changes: Are You Affected

E109, E121 Changes May 1st, 2010 This is a reminder

The new E109/E121 EU regulations for the European Health Insurance Card come into force across the whole EU on May 1st, 2010. This hubpage is mainly directed at British and Irish citizens but applies to all EU nationals who fit the stated criteria.
If you are Living in Crete/Greece, Cyprus and any other EU country and away from your original country, have you acted upon these changes because depending on your status, your home country may be responsible to issue your European Health Insurance Card instead of the member state where you live.

In broad brush stroke terms:
- The E121 EHIC applies to pensioners who move permanently to another EU country.
- The E109 EHIC applies to dependents living in one EU state but the bread winner is living in another member state.

Here is how the changes may affect you: from May 1 2010 if you are a UK British citizen, or Republic of Ireland if you are an Irish Passport Holder your respective countries may be responsible for the issue of your European Health Insurance Card instead of the member state where you live.

The new EU regulations starting on May 1, 2010 affect you if you are a national of an EU member state and live in an EU member state, and you either:
• receive your state pension or other long-term benefit from the UK and you have registered the form E121 with the health authorities in the member state where you live; or
• you are dependent on a citizen working in the UK or Ireland and have registered the form E109 issued by the UK or Ireland.

If you have not acted yet, then you will need to send your application by post. You can request an application form. With it will come an explanatory letter. This application form is different from the EHIC application form available in the UK, and will be modified to prove your entitlement to the new UK-issued or Irish-issued EHIC card.

In the UK, these cards have been sent out since April 2010 for those already aware of the changes.

Important Notice : If you are not a national of an EU member state, or you live in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, then the country where you live will remain responsible for issuing your EHIC card. In these circumstances, please contact the authorities in your country of residence.


For more EHIC information for UK, telephone:

Overseas Healthcare Team on tel: +44 191 218 1999

Full web details for UK citizens from NHS England:

For more EHIC information, in the Irish Republic telephone:

Citizens Information Phone Service, tel: +353 1890 777 121 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 9pm).
(If in Ireland lo-call charges apply).


Full web details for Irish citizens, refer to two pages:

General EHIC Information

EHIC in Detail (It looks like the web pages have not yet been updated for new EU regulation!)

Hope this is useful information for British and Irish expats Living in Crete/Greece and elsewhere in the EU.