Health Tourism?

[mushroom25]

http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8880071/international-health-service/

The voice of someone with genuine concern for the health service in this country?

or a rant from another immigrant-bashing xenophobe?

[ummmm]

It is a concern. I'm not into immigrant bashing but I don't see why anyone should be treated free of charge.

[Sqad]

Well, here we go again, a totally predictable thread, this time in the Spectator but also front page Daily Mail.

The lefties will say that it is not a problem, right wingers will say it is a drain on the budget, the Humanists will say that it is a humane act to treat the sick of any nation, the academics will say " show us the statistics" ( that is if you believe them) and the medics will tell you that the NHS was set up to treat the UK and not the world.

Each group will put it,s sound bite lee quaintly but at the end of the day there will be no answer............difficult to know what, if anything is going on in the NHS.

This topic has been chewed over on AB for the past 8 years and I wish it well.

The Politicians are stuck with the problem, the majority of the electorate do not want any change ( any change that may inconvenience them, that is), and no , I do not know the answer.

To be a politician I would want more than£70,000 per annum or £100,000 for a cabinet member.

[factor-fiction]

I agree with sqad. I am pretty sure that any system of checks and controls that causes inconvenience or leads to a delay and results in a death of someone who turns out to have been a genuine case will result in(a) public outcry, (b) criticism of the government as posh boys who can afford private treatment so don't have to worry and (c) litigation. Such a system would inconvenience the majority but the abusers would probably find a way round it.

I wish there was an answer but I don't know what it is.

Besides, in the scheme of things, what percentage of the NHS budget is lost to NHT tourists?
I also doubt any hospital would turn someone away who needed urgent life saving treatment just because they couldn't produce their papers

[grasscarp]

Some countries get you to fill out a card on arrival that you are in good health and for this reason have back diseases we had got rid of. People come here specifically to get free nhs treatment. They also sue the nhs if they want to over anything about this free treatment that they didn't like. I have not read this, I know someone who worked in their litigation department. I was in a car accident in France and had a car accident and paid for hospital treatment. This was pre eu so it may be different now. My opinion is that we are too generous with our services.

[boxtops]

The main problem as I see it is not so much people coming to the UK for health treatment, as getting them to pay for it once they've had it. It's costing the NHS huge amounts that people after treatment just skedaddle off home.

[ummmm]

I do think we should treat genuine tourists that by bad luck fall ill while visiting. Not people who travel for treatment.

[youngmafbog]

Ummm, they should buy insurance like we have to.

For instance would the septics treat you for free?

Squad, one of the best answers I have seen on this topic, which as yousay has been done to death!

Something has to be done otherwise it will continue growing. This country needs to change the perception that it is a free ride here for foreigners (which it is thanks to Blair & Co).

[emmie]

why does being aware of and concerned about immigration xenophobic,

[ummmm]

Yes, they should get insurance.

[emmie]

how about introducing a card which has your NI number on it, with photo, and only those who can supply one will get treatment. It has to be produced when you go to hospital, GP, Dentist. It can hold other data if need be, eye recognition, perhaps it sounds a bit big brother and i suspect it is, but if i had one, kept it on me at all times, prove that i am who i say i am, and am eligible as a citizen of the UK to get treatment at doctors, hospital i would do it. I am aware of the pitfalls, those who arrive in UK, get taken ill suddenly, but they have a passport and details are taken and when they are better they pay. No free ride for health tourists.

[redvanman]

Check all finger print's before treatment

[jackthehat]

Against what, exactly, redvanman.......?

[McMouse]

If the "system" permits Health Tourism so be it. If I or a member of my family was in need of a treatment or operation we could not obtain or afford in UK then I would look to an overseas provider. It's a non-brainer to me.

[237SJ]

The only solution I can think of (and that would only cover certain tourists) is that for nationalities that require a visa to visit the UK, proof of travel insurance should be provided before visa issue.

[emmie]

McM, but you would have to pay, that's the point, those who bludge on the health service here haven't.

[Old_Geezer]

Any country should charge a visitor the same as the visitor's own country's health service would were they treating the patient; with their government agreeing to make up any difference. It is patently unfair to insist a country charges visitors who have not paid into the visited country's tax system the same as it does it's own citizens. There should be no financial incentive to dump health costs on someone else's country. Any idiot politician that agreed to that should be shot at dawn.

[emmie]

did anyone actually agree to it, or does it just happen, and has for a long time, and the powers that be didn't care, or don't bother to check.

[sandyRoe]

How would it work if it was conditional that people coming from countries with a particularly bad record of health tourism were required to have health insurance before being granted a visa?

[emmie]

that everyone no matter where they come from has health/travel insurance, one that they can claim on if they fall ill here. Same as we do, after all we now have an EHIC card but that doesn't cover for everything.

[237SJ]

Sandyroe - I don`t mean just countries with a bad record of health tourism. I mean all countries where the travellers have to have a visa to visit the UK would provide proof of cover when applying for a visa. That doesn`t cover everyone else though, unfortunately.