Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner issued a warning for local people planning their holidays about scam online forms for European Health Insurance Cards (EHICs).

The EHIC card entitles UK citizens to free or reduced-cost medical treatment while travelling or staying in a European Economic Area (EEA) country, or in Switzerland. The EEA includes all European Union countries together with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

Mr Zeichner said: “These health cards are very useful if you need medical help and I would advise everyone to have one when travelling in other European countries. But recently I’ve been contacted by constituents about the alarming number of websites which charge people to get an EHIC when they can be obtained for free.”

European Health Insurance Cards are free of cost to UK citizens. However, third party websites – which often appear at the top of search results pages – charge for a card which could be obtained for free from the National Health Service.

Cambridge student Yassen Abbas went online to renew his European Health Insurance Card and clicked on the top search result: https://www.ukehic.com.

The website charged him £35 but did not offer anything more than ordering a new card via the government website.

Yassen Abbas says: “The website in my opinion is nothing more than daylight robbery.”

Daniel Zeichner MP strongly advised all constituents wanting an EHIC only to use the official website www.gov.uk/european-health-insurance-card when applying. He said: “Remember if you’re asked to pay then you’re on the wrong website.”