Re: Living In Two Countries
 

What if you don't believe in social security and the welfare state and do not receive benefits?

Where I'm going with this is that I reckon it would be fairly easy to say you are resident and get NHS treatment. What if you had just returned to the UK to live and your taxi from the airport got hit by a bus and you needed to go to the emergency room? You've just moved back but as yet have no documentation to support your residency status. I doubt that you would be charged for care

Re: Living In Two Countries
 

Accident and emergency care is free for everyone at hospitals or walk in centres. Edit - it's available to everyone, but if after the fact you're found to not be eligible for free NHS treatment you'll be invoiced.

Jeremy Hunt has now put the onus on NHS Trusts to determine patients eligibility for free treatment, it's actually law now. For non-urgent treatment the patient's status has to be determined prior to treatment. Utility bills with the patient's permanent address is one document they ask for.

Like a lot of laws, there are probably ways to get around it through fraud. Up to the individual if they think that's ok and are prepared to cop any penalty, I guess.

Re: Living In Two Countries
 

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/r...rseas-visitors

Citizens of countries that have a RHA with the UK will continue to receive the treatment allowed under that agreement free of charge. Anything above that is charged for. This includes British citizens who aren't 'ordinarily resident' in the UK.

Re: Living In Two Countries
 

Anyone prepared to lie in order to receive the benefit of free NHS treatment they're not legally entitled to would be receiving a benefit from the 'welfare state' - illegally. A benefit cheat!

Re: Living In Two Countries
 

As I stated earlier there was a series on recently about this.Yes they charge and ask for payment by giving you a bill.The guy whose job it was to ask had a card payment machine he also took with him to the wards to see the patients who had to pay.Unfortunately there was no power to demand payment but to only ask.Obviously no one paid because they couldn't afford it.

Re: Living In Two Countries
 

You're presumably talking about homeless people? In which case, I have no idea how they would prove they're resident.

No, but you'd have documentation to prove you were returning for good i.e. sale of a house in the previous country, shipping info, even emails to friends telling them you were coming back, etc. Presumably also details of a property search in the UK and maybe job hunting/appliations. So although you couldn't prove you were a resident, I'd think it fairly easy to prove that you had left for good and were intending to stay permanently. Whether or not that would count as proof for the NHS, I have no idea, but that's what I'd do.