Nhs For Foreigners At Your Expense

[Khandro]

Is Melisa Kite's article in last week's Spectator, not only entertaining (as usual) but also food for thought?
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/11/my-solvent-israeli-friend-had-the-best-of-the-nhs-without-paying-a-penny/

[whiskeryron]

It's a larf a minit in this country innit ?

[woofgang]

great article ....pile up every common immigration meme onto a one page article and call it journalism.

[CrapAtCryptics]

Not in our local hospital - Peterborough.

[Khandro]

woofgang; I don't understand your response, the guy is solvent, has skills and would like to move into the UK from outside of the EU to work, and has found employment, but can't stay because he registered, unlike the multitude, in the correct manner.

[EDDIE51]

The man in the artical was injured in an accident and recieved emergency care which is free for anyone legally present in the UK.
The Spectator seems to take a light hearted and humorous view of events but it is highly biased. A lot of the other articles are total 'bull s****t' unless they are intended as a joke!

[Peter Pedant]

erm - free emergency treatment - which I dont think is that charitable

A blow to the eye - I have to say would worry me - and the worry for the doctors is a 'blow out fracture'
https://radiopaedia.org/articles/orbital-blow-out-fracture

this can be terribly terribly disabling - double vision on lower gaze -
I know because I have it !

and he hadnt - one of those stories. = they thought I had cancer but I just had a cough -

Crap at cruptic - Peterboro ' are they making a profit on this ( charging non payers ) or is it a govt-paid-for pilot ? Are they collectiing money or just zooming around saying 'look at us everybody - we're charging them!' whilst handing out bits of paper and doing nothing else. Worrabout the indigent - do they chuck them out untreated and say 'go to a hospital that doesnt have this system!'

[Peter Pedant]

// great article ....pile up every common immigration meme onto a one page article and call it journalism.//

agree completely

[slaney]

It’s just an anecdote in the Spectator.

Whenever the NHS in is dire financial straits (like now) this kind of article appears, mostly in the tabloid press. It serves to divert the blame for underfunding to those pesky foreigners.

In fact health tourism amounts to a very small amount of the NHS budget - about 0.3%.
As John Appleby of the Kings Fund says “
“I have a feeling the public doesn’t understand the proportions involved; people speak as though thousands and thousands of people are doing it, but they really aren’t.”

Secondly the NHS is doing much better than even 5 years ago when it comes to reclaiming money, £376 million out of a possible £500 million.

Thirdly introducing added bureaucracy to collect extra money may not be cost effective, as they found in the ‘60s when there was an idea of charging people involved in road traffic accidents.

More facts and figures here …
https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/heres-why-making-people-show-their-passports-to-get-nhs-trea?utm_term=.oolKqK3WQ#.awnXDXEPB

[Peter Pedant]

hi slaney !
kiss kiss
give my regards to your mega-rich husband !

[Peter Pedant]

// as they found in the ‘60s when there was an idea of charging people involved in road traffic accidents. //

o jesus I thought they still did
( I thought it was one of the 'heads of claim' in a civil action when you sue for injuries ...)

[slaney]

Apologies to Khandro for the diversion...

Hi Peter - how are you. I've been looking for my mega-rich husband since you last mentioned him, but alas no success so far :)

[slaney]

As regards accidents I think insurance companies can pay costs occasionally, but not patients.
The principle that the cost of bureaucracy in setting up a charge recovery scheme may outweigh the benefits still stands.

[woofgang]

I retired nearly 10 years ago but when I was at work, RTA accident patients were charged in my PCT at least...but it was a piddling amount, around 8 quid.

[Khandro]

slaney; //In fact health tourism amounts to a very small amount of the NHS budget - about 0.3%.//

I think it's a little more than that;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/04/health-tourists-cost-uk-taxpayers-nearly-6billion-in-eight-years/

[slaney]

Khandro you are mixing up the cost of treating foreigners (recoverable) with health tourism - a common mistake. The Telegraph article is referring to the former.
The article also fails to take into account the fact that the UK pays to Spain, for example, far more money than it gets back because there are 70,000 UK pensioners in Spain, and, I kid you not, only 62 Spanish pensioners living in the UK.

You obviously haven't read my link which gives a somewhat larger figure £2 billion per year, and explains the difference between the two.

[New Judge]

"...only 62 Spanish pensioners living in the UK. "

I don't know where you got your numbers from, Slaney (and I have not looked for any myself) but I know, personally, four Spanish people (that is, they were born and lived for most of their lives in Spain) of pensionable age living permanently here in the UK. I would be most surprised if I knew personally more than 6% of all Spanish pensioners living in the UK.

[Mamyalynne]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/70-000-british-retirees-living-154547942.html

[slaney]

New Judge - Public Accounts sub committee...

"Just occasionally, select committee proceedings give you an insight into how the rest of the world sees us. During a recent session of the public accounts committee – at which the Department of Health civil servant Chris Wormald made headlines for saying the NHS was planning on making patients show theirs passports to access treatment – one gem slipped under the radar. During a question about reciprocal healthcare arrangements for foreign pensioners, the chair, Meg Hillier, asked Wormald if he had any comparative figures for Spain. “Yes,” he said promptly. “At our last count there are 62 Spanish … ” “Not 62,000?” interrupted the Conservative Richard Bacon. “62 Spanish pensioners,” said Hillier. “You’re kidding me.” “62 Spanish pensioners live in the UK and about 70,000 British pensioners live in Spain,” replied the bewildered Wormald, who couldn’t see what the fuss was about. “62?” Hillier repeated incredulously. “We are not the retirement place of choice,” Wormald explained. Pensioners. That’s one export success we don’t often hear the government boasting about."

[slaney]

I see Mamya got there before me - thanks - I think we can all agree that there are far far fewer Spanish retirees living in the UK then vice versa.

[Khandro]

slaney; //Khandro you are mixing up the cost of treating foreigners (recoverable) with health tourism - a common mistake.//

I think that should read "theoretically" recoverable, in practice, very little if it gets back into the NHS coffers.