I'm the victim of a bad foot surgery here in the US. Because the patient comes about 5th in our system, I can't get the corrective surgeries I need. I reside in US but have dual citizenship with Ireland. Is there ANY way I can leverage this for health care without having resided in the EU? Whether it be with paid insurance, or if I try to temporarily move to the EU. I'm desperate here. My malpositioned foot has led to a malpositioned knee which needs a partial knee replacement, and I now have a bulging disc and a few other back issues. but repositioning my foot would mean that the last repositioning was done incorrectly and...as I said, it's all medmal avoidance here, whether you are actually suing someone or not. I am on Medicare, but I don't see how I can use medicare in the EU if it's in theory a surgery that could be offered in the US.
1 Answers
No you almost certainly can't.
As explained in this question, eligibility for free healthcare in Ireland (and most other countries) is based on residency, not citizenship. You would need to obtain medical insurance to be covered for anything that happened to you in Ireland, and such coverage would not include pre-existing conditions. There are explicit exclusions on paying healthcare costs if you travel for the purpose of medical care.
It could be done if you moved back to Ireland, but you would have to establish that you are "ordinarily resident" - that means a move for at least a year, and there may be other requirements as well. You could still be excluded if they thought a medical procedure was the reason for the move.
You will probably have to go the traditional American route of suing the pants off the doctor who performed the bad surgery.
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