Not good news for you UK Expats:
UK expats fall victim to health tourismExpatriate Britons have been caught up in a major crackdown on ' health tourists' announced by the Government yesterday.
Under new restrictions, people who fly to Britain to exploit the NHS will be denied free care.
The ban preventing visitors and failed asylum seekers from milking the system is likely to come into force by next April.
Health Minister John Hutton warned that health tourism was a 'significant' problem and swift action was needed to safeguard the NHS for taxpayers.
The new rules may lead to all patients being asked for proof of residence, such as a passport or electricity bill.
However, pensioners from the UK who live abroad for more than half the year will be denied free treatment.
No matter how much they have paid in tax and National Insurance over the years, such expatriates will now have to pay for NHS care back in Britain.
Only treatment for emergencies - such as heart attacks, accidents or sudden illness - will still be free.
The move will hit thousands who have retired to the Spanish costas, France or other European countries.
Under existing rules, pensioners are only supposed to spend up to three months abroad to qualify for free NHS care. But officials did not vigorously apply this rule.
Under the 'health tourism' clampdown, thousands of expat pensioners will find themselves being quizzed on their eligibility.
The Department of Health said it had made one concession - that pensioners who return to the UK 'to spend their final years' will still be eligible for free care.
But pensioners who spend more than three months outside the EU - in countries such as Canada, America or Australia - will find they become ineligible.
Overall, the proposed law changes will mean that, unless people from overseas meet strict eligibility criteria, they will be able to receive only emergency care.
Typical cases of 'health tourism' include foreigners coming to the UK on a business trip only to turn up at an NHS hospital demanding treatment for a long- standing problem such as kidney failure.
Pregnant women from overseas also fly in shortly before giving birth. Failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants will be stopped from receiving free treatment for conditions which arise after their legal status has been determined.
The rule allowing anyone living in the UK for 12 months to get free treatment, regardless of immigration status, will no longer apply.
However, there is already concern about how the crackdown will work in practice. Failed asylum seekers and illegal immigrants with infectious diseases including TB, rabies, measles or smallpox will be given free treatment.
But the Health Department admitted yesterday that the policy for HIV and Aids sufferers had still to be fully worked out.
The NHS faces a soaring drugs and treatment bill for HIV cases, up to a third of which are thought to come from overseas. Under the plans, HIV 'health tourists' will be refused the right to start a 'new course of treatment'.
But ministers have yet to decide exactly what this means for HIV sufferers, as they are constantly on drugs costing up to £15,000 a year.
Doctors may be expected to tell patients they cannot be treated with drugs which would keep them alive longer.
Mr Hutton said it would fall to NHS managers to make sure people qualified for free treatment and not doctors and nurses.
But there are fears that A&E departments would be swamped by migrants desperate for nonemergency care but unable to get it elsewhere.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-204961/UK-expats-fall-victim-health-tourism.html#ixzz2vdCXcdLaFollow us:
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