Search Q&A
Dialysis/ health insurance/ HELP!
Hello all you healthy people :)
I am an Indian woman (27 years old) suffering from kidney failure, I need dialysis twice weekly to live. Currently I am getting this treatment in India while waiting for my long term visa approval.
My husband is Dutch, he is working and has the Symbio insurance.
I will need dialysis the first week of my arrival but from what I have read here - health insurance does not cover the first 6 months?
Please tell me what do severely ill patients like me moving to Belgium, without possibility to wait for 6 months, do? The dialysis treatment per month costs nearly 2400 Euros, certainly something I can't afford.
Thank you in advance!
The simple answer to your subsidiary question as to what do severely ill patients moving to Belgium do, is that they don't. Belgium, in common with the other EU countries, does not permit "health tourism" at all unless the person concerned has the means or insurance in place to afford it.
Your case is slightly different in that you have a husband who is a citizen of an EU country, albeit not Belgium, and he is currently living and working in Belgium and affiliated to a Belgium mutuelle (Symbio). IF your long term visa application is granted you would be living in Belgium as his dependent (à charge) and covered by HIS mutuelle affiliation and he, presumably, has already passed his 6 month "stage". That said, this is an unusual case and HE should check with Symbio as to exactly what cover they would provide for you. You won't be allowed to live in Belgium without health cover of some sort - insurance or mutuelle - and clearly you are not in a position to obtain insurance for your condition.
That said, once (if) you are allowed to move to Belgium, there will be a period while all the bureaucracy of registration is sorted out, and the mutuelle won't provide any cover during this period which could easily extend to several months.
Note that the mutuelle won't provide 100% reimbursement of your treatment costs and it will be your husband's responsibility to pay the difference - and to pay the total cost short-term while awaiting reimbursement.
Should you subsequently take up employment in Belgium, you will have to join a mutuelle in your own right but, since you will have already been the beneficiary of mutuelle cover, this shouldn't require a 6 month "stage" before cover commences.
Except in the broadest terms you are not going to get much help on this site.
Your husband is the person who should be asking the questions of his mutuelle as they are the people who are going to be deciding how much to pay and if and when they will start.
People moving from within the EU have few problems with the 6 month rule as they will be covered by insurance from their home country. Will this apply in your case? Will whoever is paying for your treatment in India continue to do so for the first 6 months of your stay in Belgium?
Other things to consider are whether you will be allowed to move here at all. There are increasingly close investigations into the reasons for people seeking to move to the EU. The authorities will need to be convinced that your marriage is totally genuine and that it is not simply a means for you to get medical treatment here. And, whatever the realities of your case, unfortunately you have to prove that, on balance, your marriage is a genuine, loving relationship; the authorities do not have to prove that it is not.
And this is not exclusive to Belgium. similar rules apply throughout the EU.
Further to what Kasseistamper has said, I would point out that there is one sentence in your original post which suggests that your visa application may well be rejected. That sentence is "The dialysis treatment per month costs nearly 2400 Euros, certainly something I can't afford."
You are married and you wish to move to Belgium, therefore this cost is a joint responsibility between yourself and your husband - so "we" not "I" - and if you have no income as surely you won't, at least to start with, it becomes totally your husband's responsibility. Certainly the Belgian state offers back up help but this is intended for those already resident who fall on hard times, not for incomers.
The Belgian authorities are certain to be suspicious of your visa application anyway. Your husband is Dutch so he is entitled to work in Belgium, yet he seems to have insufficient income here to support you, so why doesn't he return to the Netherlands and seek a visa for you there? You seem to speak English well but do you speak Dutch, or French, to a standard that would enable you to become economically active (i.e. get a job) in Belgium? Or why doesn't your husband get a job in the UK and seek a visa for you there where you health needs could be met by the NHS?
You will HAVE to ask the mutuelle. You are covered as a family, but I would strongly advise against attempting to move here until you have a clear treatment plan and a clear idea of how to fund it.
'Are pre-existing conditions of these arriving long term residents covered by the usual Mutuelles? '
In my case, though over 20 years ago, they were.
When I moved here to join my Belgian resident girl-friend I was a long-term chronic asthmatic. I was added to her Mutuelle as a family dependent and got continuing medication and treatment from Day 1. In due course I was treated by the Mutuelle as an individual in my own right.
No problem.
My girlfriend had already lived here for over 20 years when I moved to join her so she was registered with a mutuelle. They simply added me as her dependent and I'm sure that it was soon after I arrived. I'm also sure that there was no question asked of either of us as the state of my health but her doctor would have been immediately aware as I soon needed more medication.
I've never had any problem with reimbursements. I've now been here over 20 years and am still taking a range of daily medications.
After I moved here I registered in the commune where she was known - rural Flanders and she had lived there for more than 10 years. The only tiny 'problem' was that the staff there had to deal with the concept of a housekeeper who was male as they had never encountered such a thing before - it was fine for a woman to live with a man if he accepted financial responsibility for her but a shock to their collective system when I turned up!
Check out http://www.uzleuven.be/en for information on dialysis.
This is the site for Gasthuisberg in Leuven which is the biggest hospital in Belgium. I don't know what you will find but I have had extensive dealings with the hospital and found the staff incredibly helpful with English readily spoken at every level.
Good luck.
