NHS risks becoming 'world health service

[Perthbum]

Bit of a disgrace really, the NHS is struggling to provide care for people actually living and paying their taxes in the UK as more and more people including ex pats return for. Holiday to the UK have expensive treatment free on the NHS and then buggar off to the country of their choice.
You pay as you go for health care in the UK so laying a few years NI before people emigrate does not entitle people to free care for life.
what I cannot understand is why their country of choice has such a bad health service that they ave to return to the UK for treatment, do these people not pay health insurance in their country of choice.
hate this goverment but glad to see they are addressing the situation...about time.


Ministers have confirmed that GPs do not need to ask prospective patients for ID or proof of address when registering them, raising fresh fears over “health tourism”.
It allows foreign or former nationals who arrive in England on a six-month visitors visa to begin receiving health care immediately.

[PaulandDeb]

And why not, IF your a expat who paid in for years.
Agreed if they are coming in from indiobezeckraniguay then yes, make them pay towards the treatment.

[Perthbum]

And why not, IF your a expat who paid in for years.
Agreed if they are coming in from indiobezeckraniguay then yes, make them pay towards the treatment.

Some people going to oz have paid in very few years and probably already got their money's worth through child birth etc, you pay as yo go in the UK, paying a few years does not entilte you to free health care for life, and what about folk who ve taken out oz citinship..? They are now Aussies and entilted to nothing.

[PaulandDeb]

Stop being so bitter all the time mate, i can see what your doing and it will not wash.
I have paid in thousands over my working life in the UK, and i should get treatment there if i ever went back, but why should i when we are very happy here, and paying into the system here, i have a medical condition that will require surgery eventually, does not mean i will be jumping on a plane to get it done there does it.
Your just blowing it up making mountains out of moles houses again.
There is an issue with health tourism we all know that, but what amount of the problem is actually poms in oz mate, got any figures?
How many on the dole who have no intention of ever working walk in and out of A and E every Saturday night full of cheap beer to get treatment deserve it?

[fish.01]

Some people going to oz have paid in very few years and probably already got their money's worth through child birth etc, you pay as yo go in the UK, paying a few years does not entilte you to free health care for life, and what about folk who ve taken out oz citinship..? They are now Aussies and entilted to nothing.

Not sure what you mean as Aussie visitors are entitled to NHS healthcare as soon as they arrive in the UK?

[snifter]

Ministers have confirmed that GPs do not need to ask prospective patients for ID or proof of address when registering them, raising fresh fears over “health tourism”.It allows foreign or former nationals who arrive in England on a six-month visitors visa to begin receiving health care immediately.

Here is a link to the Telegraph article the above quote is taken from, dated 30 April 2012


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...mpaigners.html

[Moving 2 Melbourne]

So does this mean that Brits coming to Aus on holiday should not be covered under the reciprocal health care agreement then?

[snifter]

GP surgeries perhaps don't have to, but many still do require proof of address to register with them. They have a catchment area or zone within which they accept patients, outside of that its a no go. The last few times we've moved we've had to provide proof of address when registering. The last time we moved to a new town and I checked with the GP before moving, and we still fall under their zone. Had we been a few streets further into the new town, we would only have had the option of the GP surgery in the new town.

[snifter]

And at the end of the Telegraph article it does say the following. It appears they are trying to take measures to curb 'health tourism'.


However the Government is now looking at ways to tackle the growing cost of “health tourism”.
Under the proposals, foreigners could be charged for visiting a GP or forced to take out health insurance.
Anyone who receives hospital care but fails to pay the money back, as required, could be kicked out of the country if they try to return. Currently £10m a year is lost to foreign nationals who fail to pay back the cost of their treatment.

[Candygirl]

Quite a few ex pats have left Spain due to the "La Crisis". Why shouldn't they be allowed to have healthcare from the first day they step back onto UK soil. Most of them have paid into the system for years and are on pensions. If they are young families again they would have been working and paying into the system and would continue to do so once they gain employment back in the UK again. If someone chooses to have treatment in the UK, they should have to pay. Is this not the same as the people who choose to have plastic surgery who travel to god knows where to get it done cheaper?

As usual, they are beating the wrong drum. They need to put a cap on immigration and make sure that the ones they "let in" can afford to pay into the system and better still start to reform the benefits system in general and get lazy people back to work who will pay into the system so that there will be more coffers in the pot to pay for the vulnerable and genuine people who cannot work through no fault of their own.