At the moment, if you don’t live in the UK, and you come here and get treated at an NHS hospital, sometimes you’re supposed to pay for it.
You can get registered at a GP surgery, you don’t have to pay for emergency treatment, and for urgent things like giving birth you will be treated without having to pay upfront. We’ve got some agreements with other countries in Europe giving some people free or cheaper emergency health care in return for the same for British citizens, and in Scotland the rules are slightly different again. But for nearly everything else, you’re supposed to pay.
The trouble is that some people just don’t pay. The NHS does their best to chase these health tourists up for the money, but there’s a lot they don’t get back.
They government thinks these things will help:
A central database
- A central database of people who owe money over a certain amount. This would be separate from their medical and other confidential data.
- They want people who owe either over £500 of debt (2 nights in hospital with 24 hour care), or over £1,000 (4 nights in hospital, not counting care) to be on this database.
- The NHS would be responsible for making sure the database was kept up to date. We want them to wait either 1, 2 or 3 months before reporting the debt – what do you think?
Easy ways to pay off debt
- People to be able to pay their debts using the NHS 24 hour service in England and during hospital working hours in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- The NHS wants us to look at health insurance options for people coming from abroad.
More hold over people who have NHS debts
- People should have to settle any NHS debts before they apply to come to the UK again.
- If they don’t, that should be a reason to stop them coming to the UK.
- If someone already has permission to come to the UK, but they owe the NHS money, we should be able to stop them coming back.
- If someone is applying to be a British citizen, if they owe the NHS any money that should be taken into account.
- Normal rules mean that asylum seekers and other people who’ve had a hard time getting here, like trafficked people, or if you’ve been refused asylum but can’t go home, then you don’t usually have to pay. Children who come to this country without parents or guardians are looked after by a lot of rules and NHS treatment is free, though if they’re here with a parent or guardian they’ll have to pay for them. Do we need to do anything more for children and vulnerable people? Or maybe we need to do things differently?
Let the government know why you think any, all or none of these things will work.
They also want to know if you think these new rules will make things worse for any people in particular (for example pregnant women, or older people), and how they could avoid doing that.
- Email your thoughts
- Fill in the online survey
- Post your answers to:
UK Border Agency
CPU Consultations
PO Box 90
Postal Account 23
M90 3RR