Crackdown expected on NHS tourism

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Northerner

Northerner

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Loopholes that allow migrants to wrongly access free UK health care will be closed under a crackdown on abuse of public services next week, Jeremy Hunt will announce.

The NHS bill for treating tourists, estimated to be up to ?200 million, will also be tackled as part of reforms being outlined by the Health Secretary on Wednesday.

Expats, who currently face paying for care if they live permanently overseas, are set to be given guaranteed access to free NHS healthcare, but only once they have paid 10 years of national insurance contributions.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/n...ackdown-expected-on-nhs-tourism-29383141.html
 
I agree with this coment "Prime Minister David Cameron said earlier this year that immigrants cannot expect "something for nothing" in the UK"
 
When you go abroad & go to hosp all they want to see is your insuance docs first :( Thats what should happen to them 🙂
 
HOBIE said:
When you go abroad & go to hosp all they want to see is your insuance docs first :( Thats what should happen to them 🙂
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Actually, when my femur broke running the Stockholm Marathon I received excellent treatment in hospital there free of charge - at the time I didn't even have an EHIC card. I had travel insurance but as far as I know the hospital made no claim on it. 🙂
 
Like Northey, I also had a good experience of treatment abroad. I suffered breathing difficulties in a remote area of China and had to go to the local hospital. They didn't have any of the drugs that I would have been given as routine in the UK, but a short spell on oxygen helped (the problem was more likely to have been the altitude than anything more sinister). The hospital did not demand any payment, nor did the doctor who treated me. A small voluntary donation was only accepted on the basis that it was for charity. 100 RMB was a large sum to them, but that converted to just ?7.
 
Thats not what happened to us in Spain & Cyprus. They didnt want to know about 111 card only interested in getting hands on ins ???? 😉
 
HOBIE said:
Thats not what happened to us in Spain & Cyprus. They didnt want to know about 111 card only interested in getting hands on ins ???? 😉
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There was a fuss about this recently, where those countries are practically bankrupt so demanding payments for treatment that ought to be free under EU rules. :(
 
My wife disslocated her shoulder in a water park in cyprus approx 3 years ago. I love cyprus but couldnt wait to get ins details. Similar in spain. Come to uk its free.
 
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