Real redress, in order

1. Your doctor, before departure

   Before leaving

   Ask for a cross-border prescription and check its content: patient, date, prescriber, common name of the medicine, format, quantity, strength and dosage. The official EU page details the list and the case of e-prescriptions.

   Presenting a prescription in another EU country (Your Europe, European Union)

2. The country's pharmacist, prescription in hand

   On the spot

   If dispensing stalls, ask for the ground: the only restrictions the directive admits are written down, necessary and proportionate to safeguard human health and non-discriminatory, or based on legitimate and justified doubts about the authenticity, content or comprehensibility of the prescription, the ethical refusal remaining reserved for cases where it would have applied to a local prescription. The official text can be shown.

   Directive 2011/24/EU, Article 11 (EUR-Lex)

3. Your health insurer, for the reimbursement

   Once home

   The recognition of prescriptions does not affect the rules on reimbursement: once home, turn to your health insurer, receipt and prescription in hand, to learn the rules applicable to your case. The official EU portal describes the payment and reimbursement steps for stays in another country.

   Unplanned healthcare: payments and reimbursements (Your Europe, European Union)

Medicine prices, coverage rates and prescription validity periods belong to each country: this site presents only the European baseline common to the twenty-seven.