European Health Insurance Card Expired?

So, you Sour Faced Grubby Little  Englander, you thought that if you got one of the European Health Insurance Cards then your health needs in European Mega-State would be secured.

You know -  the pinkish credit card sized ID that so "conveniently" replaced the E111 form.

Maybe you even hedge your bets and plan to take out some private insurance as well. You know - Just In Case.

Billowthewisp has some very bad news for you.

These are a couple of itsy titsy issues with the European Health Cards.

The first issue is that they expire. (unlike the old E111)

Waddya mean they expire? (I hear you say)

Have you checked yours recently? (Ah No. Thought not.)
Didn't you realise they expired?

Now come on. Get a grip.

Why do you think they were issued in the first place?

All you cynical bastards here can now chime in together  - "So they could be charged for at a later date"

After all, why do you need a card when you have a passport? As I remember when you apply for a passport you provide your National Insurance Number.  So this little card is just another redundant bit of pointless bureaucracy. Something to expire, something to get lost or whatever.

At the moment more than 3.3 million Brits have expired European Health Cards. ( See Here ) Only 220 thousand people have realised they need to be renewed and have actually renewed this useless and pointless piece of jobs worth empire building.

But without it you could end up knee deep in the shite, far from home, with no health cover and very large bills.

No doubt, literally millions of Brits will be going abroad this year with NO VALID RECOURSE to on-demand health care.

This will not be because they are feckless imbeciles.

It will be because some idiot in government has decided that:

a. Having yet another useless piece of ID is a "good idea".
b. Making this useless piece of ID expire out of sync with your passport is also a "good idea".
c. Not publicising the fact that they expire is also a jolly money saving wheeze.
d. Making folk jump through a few more hoops really does show who is on control.
e. This new little empire will create lots of pointless wealth shrinking McJobs.

The second issue concerns Private Medical Insurance.

Do I detect a level of smugness amongst some of you who hedge their bets with private insurance?

Well, take that smile off your face matey. You insurance is probably null and void - if your European Health Insurance card is not valid.

You know as well as I do that Insurance companies are about as honest and compassionate as a Columbian drug Cartel.

Many Insurance policies are only valid if you have a valid European Health Insurance Card. Read it in the small print.

How crap is that.

So, as an aid memoir to you my fellow English Barbarians and ne'er do wells.....

CHECK THAT YOUR EUROPEAN HEALTH INSURANCE CARD IS VALID. DO IT NOW! (You know it makes sense.)

Inequality and Tax credits

Today a government appointed think tank announced that inequality between the top ten per cent and the bottom ten per cent has widened. In fact it is now wider than at any time since WWII. I do not expect that this was the result the humiliated Hariette Harman was looking for. Even so, it is nothing to laugh about. But I do not want to dwell on the Labour parties pathetic excuses. I would just like to look at this from a recent historical perspective.

Back in the mid 1960's unemployment varied around 250,000 in a population of about 52 million. Two hundred and fifty thousand. I did not miss a nought off the end.

Today unemployment officially stands at ten times the level of the 1960's. That is about 2.5 million, but this is a heavily manipulated figure. There are about another 4 million (at least) syphoned off into higher education or training schemes. There are then maybe another 1 million who have simply given up looking for a job and live off either their savings or partner.

Of these 2.5 million "officially" unemployed about half are young people. Many have never had a job and are trapped into a benefits culture of idleness.

One of this current government's great claims is that it has (rather belatedly) pushed forward incentives for people to work. There are a plethora of tax credits/schemes and other means-tested incentives. Although these make employment slightly more attractive, the sheer technical effort required to fill in the forms, go through the interviews and then actually get a job is a major block to employment.

That really is the problem. The current government is obsessed with regulation and monitoring. There is a all pervading urge to document, control and oversee. If all criteria are met, then the government acts like the majestic Victorian benefactor. But only to those who jump through the hoops like performing dogs.

I have little time for the Liberals but one idea they expounded on recently, was the concept of raising the tax threshold to £10K. With this, at least some of the expensive bureaucratic nightmare of tax credits, claims and rebates can be consigned to history.

The way to getting people back into work and off the dole if to incentivise them. Get rid of the ugly and humiliating benefits. Most importantly, get rid of taxation on the poor.

The way forward is less government, less control,less benefits and much less tax on those on lower wages. This would be bad news for Harriette Harman and the other control freaks. But it would be good news for the poor.