Health Tourism
Definitions
Health Tourism: People from outside the UK using the NHS (e.g when on holiday).
Deliberate Health Tourism: Non-UK nationals who actively fly to the UK in order to benefit from the NHS free healthcare.
Health Tourism Laws
In 2015, people who are not UK residents must pay the NHS 150% of the cost price of the treatment except for GP appointments, infectious diseases and emergency care. This was then followed up by law tightening in 2017 which placed a duty on NHS Trusts to charge for treatments upfront if a person was not eligible for free care. In 2019, Matt Hancock invested a further £1 million into expert teams to ensure these fees were enforced and collected. Note, if the person has overseas health insurance, this is settled with the insurer.
Should we have Health Tourism Laws?
Before the fee, health tourism costed the NHS £300m a year, less than 0.3% of the total budget.
600,000 people have been rended ineligible for free NHS healthcare under the new laws. This is putting lives at risk.
Unclear guidelines have delayed medical treatment and harmed patients.
Immigrant specific laws may cause a racist culture.
UK residents have also feared receiving treatment due to fear of deportation causing deaths.
In 2019, a family was refused their baby after he died during an emergency Caesarean section as they couldn’t pay the £9,000 fee.
It disregards the founding principle of the NHS “Meets the needs of everyone.” and “Free at the point of delivery.”
It disregards the NHS Constitution: “equal care”, “improving lives” and “compassion”.
The Royal College of Midwives requests that maternity care is exempt from the charge. The BMA demands the fees are scrapped.