seaham gal

Yes Steve - I can understand where you're coming from!

nooka

When I broke my arm and jaw on holiday in Utah everyone was very worried about the cost of the ambulance, so my guide (I got injured on a half day cycling excursion) drove me to the hospital, and then my anesthetist drove me to the B&B in the town I was flying home from (the morning after my jaw was set - a four or five hour drive, vaguely in the direction he was taking his family). I was amazed how worried they were (but they said lots of insurance plans didn't cover ambulance costs.

startwin

Wow, that's expensive, but then you guys are rich out in Alberta and no sales tax. It's $50 here in BC, unfortunately have had to use it several times for my OH, but well worth it, as you say!

BristolUK

If you have house insurance but never claim on it because there's been no fire or burglary....and then move to a new insurance company....then you have a fire....do you claim from the previous company?

So why claim from the previous country?

windward

When I get burgled, without insurance, I lose my laptop. When I start spurting claret all over the place, without insurance, a little bit more is at stake. When my new country charges me my premiums, but refuses to give me coverage, (for my house or my health) I see shades of grey instead of black and white when it comes to health tourism. Don't agree for one minute that showing up in the UK for some treatment gratis and buggering off again is right, but there's a case to be made.

As we've already established anyway, healthcare in the UK has nothing to do with insurance, the national kind or otherwise. It's more about a philosophy, the benefits of which - now that people can enter and leave countries so easily - must be provided to residents only, except in emergency.

You're right, I'm not a Permanent Resident. But I am a resident, and was the moment I stepped off the plane with intent to stay here; its all perfectly legal. There's a reason they make the distinction. I don't see how I count in any way, shape, or form as a British resident any longer.

Right now, I can't work when my BUNAC visa expires, but my job's no less permanent for it. But then that's neither here nor there.

I don't think I can use the healthcare. But then I'm not ill and I haven't been stupid about throwing myself down hills on bits of wood, where I might hurt myself so I'm not too bothered.

moosey2canada

My bloody god - practically everyone on here has bashed the UK and all the various systems and services, and moved wherever with their parting epithet being that the UK is crap! Then you've got the bloody audacity to pop back to the UK for a fortnight and use the NHS like a bloody drop in center, no wonder the NHS is in a bit of a state, as far as i am concerned you've made you allegience to another flag, you pay your taxes to another government let them look after you and stop taking the piddle!

Auld Yin

A bright light in a sea of darkness. Well said.

fish.01

Just to add something else into the mix.

Apart from the free emergency treatment that the NHS offers to all visitors, as an Australian I can use the NHS for "any" treatment (emergency or otherwise) as long as the condition occurred after my arrival in the UK - even a pre-existing condition if it happened to acutely exacerbate whilst there.

Which means that as an Australian Citizen resident in Australia, I'm entitled to more treatment on the NHS than a British Citizen resident in Canada

startwin

Are you absolutely sure about that? I think you are wrong as far as I know Australians get no preferential health treatment over any other visitor, but if you can show otherwise I'll be very interested. That would be very discriminatory against Brits living in Canada or anywhere else other than Australia.

fledermaus

Do you mean as a visitor to Britain, on holiday? I don't see how this can be the case, do you have a reference?

Later after searching,
I found one, its a reciprocal agreement. Listed here along with the other countries. Canada isn't on it. It covers emergency treatment that won't wait until the patient returns home.

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publications...ance/DH_064150
This would mean that UK citizens are eligible for treatment in Australis

startwin

Interesting stuff - good research, Batty. However, it does not cover "any" treatment as the poster says, but emergency treatment that becomes necessary while in the UK, if deemed necessary by a medic.

fledermaus

Yes, saves on travel insurance but doesnt get you free treatment for long term illness that develop while you are away.

nooka

There are quite few reciprocal treaties, for tax and other services. Always worth looking. I think annual worldwide insurance is the most sensible option though. And if you leave the UK researching, amongst other things the health system of your new home, and getting into the mind set that that is your home, and that system is then your system. It seems highly unwise to move somewhere with a poor health system in your retirement, when you are after all most likely to use it.

BristolUK

I am not likening healthcare to insurance. I am likening the existence of meeting certain conditions to an entitlement to certain advantages; namely meeting residency conditons and being entitled to NHS treatment and paying private insurance premiums and being entitled to private insurance payouts in the event of fire etc.
I thought the similarities were significant whether or not one considers it a philosophy.

One meets certain conditions with one country/ pays the required private insurance premiums to one insurance company and one qualifies for the duration of the period of meeting those conditions/paying the premiums.

One no longer meets those conditions (having left the country other than temporarily) or no longer pays the premiums, one no longer qualifies.

Seems simple enough.

But 'resident' doesn't qualify you for the same things that Permanent Residency does. I'm sure you know that. How can you say your job is no less permanent when you won't be allowed to keep it when the visa expires?

Is the granting of a BUNAC Visa conditional on an applicant indicating they are returning to their home country?

You may intend (hope?) to stay in Canada but it's not your decision is it? If you don't get PR status and a visa runs out and won't get renewed will you try another country or will you return to the UK? At the moment it would seem the only guaranteed right you have is to continue with UK residency.

So it would seem that you would still count as a UK resident until something changes that. There's an end to your temporary stay in Canada so you're out of the UK temporarily aren't you?

Had one been away from the UK for an extended period but returned there after a Visa entitling one to live somewhere else expired, even the infamous Habitual Residency Test rules would have accepted one as being UK Resdient; that being the only constant.

Jerseygirl

Do you not have to take out healthcare insurance when you are in Canada with BUNAC?

My daughter went to uni in Toronto...she had to take the university's healthcare insurance before she was allowed to begin the course each year. She had US healthcare insurance which covered her in Canada but it made no difference. Ontario wanted to make sure that international students would not be a burden on it's healthcare system and rightly so IMO.