British citizens could lose rights to urgent medical treatment in the EU after Brexit, say peers

The Lords EU Committee said there was no guarantee that access to the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme would continue once Britain quit the bloc and shored up its borders.

David Davis has previously said ministers want to end people's “anxiety” and ensure the scheme continues, however peers say such an arrangement may not be possible.

The report claims it will be “difficult to square the Government's ambitions for reciprocal healthcare with its stated aim of ending freedom of movement of people from the EU” in March 2019.

The committee said ministers needed to provide more detail on how the EHIC system would be maintained, saying they “should not take the future of UK-EU reciprocal healthcare for granted”.

Chairman of the EU home affairs sub-committee, Lord Jay of Ewelme, said: "One of the primary aims of the EU's reciprocal healthcare arrangements is to support free movement by eliminating the financial or bureaucratic barriers that individuals would otherwise face in accessing healthcare.

"These arrangements have brought the greatest benefit to some of the most vulnerable members of our society. We do not wish to see this progress reversed in the future.

"While we applaud the spirit underlying the Government's ambition to maintain reciprocal healthcare arrangements, including the EHIC, post-Brexit, it is difficult to square this with ending freedom of movement of people from the EU."