Biometric thoughts
Monday wasn’t a day for a walk, at least not early in the morning when the sky was gunmetal grey, and the wind was whipping the house from all sides. The forecast showed 7 and 8 Bf from the south-east, so at least it wasn’t biting cold, but the roof tiles where whistling, and the shutters rattled. The rest of the week looks calmer and colder, so I might get out onto the hillside to do some wandering and wondering.
The ‘buzz’ in the British immigrant world right now is all about biometric permits, and I’ve been reading posts on various fora (forums) with interest. A couple of things have stood out for me. One is how people living in different areas have had different experiences. Some, for example, have not been asked for the paperwork that others have. Some people have been refused help at KEP (like the CAB) because they don’t have a biometric card yet while seeking advice on how to get one. That’s actually against the rules, and they are being advised to report such breaches to the embassy in Athens. Others have said their cards came in two days, others, four weeks. Some people have only been able to make an appointment for the end of June, which is the cut-off date, while others are seen to the following week. It depends on where you are, I guess, and how busy your local office is. We have ours booked for late April, the earliest date we could get in Rhodes.
Another issue that concerns me is people seeking out the cheapest possible health insurance to have the minimum cover required when applying for their card. These are people like me who don’t fit into the IKA system, the national health service if you like. They live in Greece, and yet don’t have health cover, and many of them are in their late 50s and early 60s, so not covered by any existing reciprocal agreement for pensioners. What worries me is that these folks aren’t covered and haven’t been for some time and some are only thinking about it now they have to. What were they going to do if they were suddenly taken seriously ill? Jet off ‘home’ I guess, but here is home, and as I am not covered by IKA any longer, I have to struggle to pay for private insurance. While I am about it, I get the best, most comprehensive cover I can, just in case. It’s the ‘condom theory.’ I’d rather have one and not need it than need one and not have it. I suspect some of these people going for their residency cards are trying to slip through the net and get the best of both worlds: A home in both countries and the right to live in either for as long as they want, just as we could pre-Brexit. Now, if you’re resident in Greece, you’re resident in Greece. If you’re not paying tax here, you’re paying it there, thus not eligible to be resident here (with some exceptions, I believe). You can’t have the best of both, and come and go to your holiday home for as long as you want like you could do before. Whatever, when, as I read yesterday, someone needs an emergency operation and to go private costs €15,000, there’s no point relying on tourists’ insurance as some try to do, nor on your cheap, basic cover from the supermarket chain or bank. Do it properly and stop trying to cheat the system, I say, for what my thoughts are worth.
Amway… Back to the drafting of the next novel, battening down the hatches, and saving the pennies for my health insurance.
