Medical Care NON EU National

Hi, any advise would be much appreciated. Im Irish born and bread.....never been in a hospital in my life (as a patient). My fiance, who is South American, is pregnant with my child. I'm trying to organise the best option for care going forward. We both decided that we could prefer he to have child in Ireland. She has public and private health care in Chile put obviously this is not much use in Ireland. I have private care for me alone. I'm just wondering is there any hope that I can get free care for her as a public patient in Ireland??? Obviously she will be living here (the visa and her entry here is another issue!) Assuming she can stay her for 3 months. Our plan would be to have her come before 5 months pregnant. I dont mind paying something but from what i read, if I was to pay for everything it would cost a lot of money. I just want to know if anybody else was in the same situation or knows of anybody in a smililar situation. For example, do i have any right because im Irish and the father??? Or does that make any difference????

Hope to hear something positive...

Thanks

Colin

AFAIK everyone coming into the country has an obligation to have medical insurance although I don't think this is always checked. If some one is coming to live here from outside the EU they will definitely have to have it and it is checked. Will she get it given she is pregnant and planning to travel? She may have to declare she is pregnant as part of her visa application. If she doesn't and was required to it may be seen as deception. Will you be traveling with her when she is coming? When is she due and when is she planning to travel?
She may be as well to have the baby in chile and then come here. You being the father should make it a lot easier for her and the baby to join you here.
Good luck

There is a scheme of joint care between GPs and hospitals in the public system. You do not need a medical card to avail of it, but they do ask for a PPS number.
The HSE site has no info on it but see these.

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Please note it only pays the GP for a specific amount of visits, so extra ones have to be paid for.

does the hse check the residency status? There are plenty of non EU immigrants in Ireland, and I am not aware of births not being cared for because of immigration status.