FAQs - Expenses and reimbursements: planned medical treatment abroad

The cost of your treatment abroad is only covered if the national social security system in the country where you are insured covers it. If it doesn't, your national health insurance body is not obliged to authorise treatment abroad or to reimburse the costs (although, of course, it may choose to do so).
Contact your national authorities to find out what options are available to you. Some help might also be available to you in your own country via the European reference networks – virtual, voluntary cross-border networks, bringing together highly specialised healthcare providers across Europe to help diagnose and treat patients suffering from rare or low prevalence complex diseases that require highly specialised healthcare and a concentration of knowledge and resources.

YES - As long as the medical treatment you undergo is included in your national social security system. You should be aware that your costs will be reimbursed at the rate your home country applies for this type of treatment. This means that you will be reimbursed up to the amount the same treatment would have cost in the public system in your home country.
In some cases, you may be required to apply for prior authorisation, so make sure you check with your insurer or National Contact Point. Again, your application must be granted if your wait for treatment at home is too long.

Your national health insurance body is only obliged to cover costs relating to your medical treatment in the EU country where you were treated, such as for hospital care, the cost of medical treatment, and unavoidable accommodation and meals in the hospital.
However, if you have received a prior authorisation and the rules of the country where you are insured cover other costs – such as travel from your home to the place of treatment or the expenses of the person accompanying you – then your national health insurance body cannot refuse to reimburse those costs simply because you were treated in another EU country. You have the same rights as if the medical treatment had been given in the EU country where you are insured.
To find out which costs can be reimbursed in your case, contact your national health insurance body.

In some situations, yes. For example, if your first request for authorisation was rejected, but you were given authorisation later, your national health insurance body should reimburse the amount that would normally have been reimbursed if your authorisation had been confirmed at the outset.
As another example, if you went ahead and got the treatment abroad before awaiting the outcome of a legal appeal against a refusal for authorisation, you should also be reimbursed if the appeal is successful.
You should also be reimbursed if you were not able to wait for the decision on your application for prior authorisation, for reasons relating your state of health or to the need to receive urgent treatment.

NO. Your national health insurance body cannot refuse to cover your treatment purely on the grounds of cost. 

Waiting lists are not against EU law. As long as you fulfill the conditions needed to get the treatment abroad (the treatment is covered by your health insurance and can’t be provided to you within a medically justifiable time limit), your health insurance body can't refuse you authorisation for treatment, even if you're already on a waiting list for the operation in your home country.

You should be able to appeal under national law. If you think your EU rights on planned medical treatment abroad have not been respected by a national authority, you can contact SOLVIT for assistance.