formula

That's how I read it too. The surcharge starts from 6 April.

The report for the Immigration Act 2014 changes said the UK will no longer be as overly generous as it has been with it's citizens healthcare system. And that they were returning the British National Healthcare System to the British National Healthcare Systmen and not the International Healthcare System it had become. They made an exception for those with ILR who live in the UK as they have been granted settled status.

I would assume from that that they don't need to pay the surcharge when they apply legally for ILR.

formula

There are already many people who work in the UK and pay taxes, but who are not allowed to use the British NHS for free. i.e. many of those who use the EU route to the UK, those on a work visa for 6 months. They need to buy an expensive CSI (Comprehensive Sickness Insurance) to cover all their healthcare and to cover all existing conditions and accidents too soon. Those are the rules and they accept these when they move to the UK.

These CSI policies are much more expensive than the £200 a year those on a UK visa will pay for free use of the British NHS; and that £200 will also cover all their existing conditions no matter how expensive they are to the UK.

michali

I agree with you, formula. Even though my husband and I have paid taxes for years in the UK, had strong ties to the UK, etc. we were non resident. I have never had a problem with the prospect of paying a surcharge if we returned to the UK ( my husband is non EU). We cannot have our cake AND eat it, though many would love to! I have a feeling that several new applicants will not be aware of the surcharge which comes into effect in just over two weeks and will be dismayed at the added cost and I do feel for those who will find it difficult to meet the new requirement.

formula

It would have been worse if the UK did what other countries do to protoct their nationals helathservice and insist that immigrants have to pass a medical before they can have a visa. Which they could have done.

It's better that he isn't an EEA citizen and that he entered the UK on a spouse visa.
If he was an EEA citizen: he would need to keep working for the UK to pay for his healthcare; or buy his own expensive CSI; or try to get his own EEA country to pay for all his healthcare if he retired to the UK. Plus the UK visa is safer.

LondonSquirrel

They really need to give a card similar to the Carte Vitesse France has to check membership of the NHS. It could be similar to the card I've got for free prescriptions. If you lose it it doesn't matter as it's quickly replaced, and you can get the card number when you phone up to make a note of whilst you wait for the replacement to come. You don't even need to present the card in fact. But if you sign to claim free prescriptions and during the random audit they find out you aren't actually entitled, you have to pay the cost plus a fine of £100. Happened to a colleague of mine. Of course the fine needs to be a lot more than £100 too. Plus it would provide jobs for people doing the auditing. Come to think of it they could make lying to get free treatment a criminal offence.

michali

Again, formula, I agree!

spouse of scouse

I'll let you know in about 6 months (if someone made a mistake), that's when we're doing my spouse visa application. There goes the neighborhood

formula

It seems that lying to get something from the UK is a fail of the Good Character requirement, for 10 years from the offence or 10 years from when it was discovered.

For those using the EEA route, it seems Germany wants to change the rules so they can be deported and banned under "whoever lies, flies". Another difference between the UK visas and the EEA route.

formula

If I was a betting person, I would say that nothing will change until next April.

I'll warn the press

feelbritish

Paying £200 is a bargain to me! Returning residents to Canada and newcomers have to wait 3 months before accessing health care and we also pay contributions 4 times year for our health care which is more than that!

spouse of scouse

Yep, I think it's a bargain too. In Australia, you pay 2% of your income as a mandatory tax to cover Medicare (public health). If you want to take out private cover as well it's expensive, Scouse and I pay $380 a month for our private cover.

feelbritish

I do not think the British people realise what a gem they have in the National Health.

rebeccajo

Here's where your £200 is going:

NHS agrees largest-ever privatisation deal to tackle backlog | Society | The Guardian

"The contract has raised concern because three of the 11 profit-driven companies involved have been heavily criticised, including two by the NHS regulator, for providing poor quality of care in hospitals and care homes. Labour’s shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said it showed that “chunks” of the NHS were being sold off – but the Department of Health insisted there had been no significant increase in the privatisation of the health service."

formula

What is the point of you criticising countries who have healthcare systems for their nationals, when your own country doesn't do this for their citizens?

FYI, there are four NHS; one for each country and Labour run 3 of them.


The surcharge is going into a pot for all the 4 NHS to share.





If you really want to see how badly Labour would run NHS England, then you only have to look at the dire state that the Labour run NHS Wales is in. Here are a few links for you. You can google if you want more.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/heal...-in-Wales.html

Welsh NHS has worst waiting times in UK for life-saving diagnostic tests | Society | The Guardian

BBC News - More heart patients die waiting for surgery in south Wales

Untreated patients left to die: The Labour-run Welsh NHS wastes money on bureaucrats in non-jobs yet has lethally long waiting lists for the seriously-ill that would shame a Third World country | Daily Mail Online


Read the complaints from the users of NHS Wales here. They want the service and care that NHS England gives, but Wales won't fund them anymore to use NHS England.

http://www.parliament.uk/business/co...ts-in-england/

It seems that fortunately for England, when this government got into power in 2010 they ring fenced NHS England from spending cuts. Unfortunately for Wales, Labour didn't do that.

formula

I do. I have family in the US. To a lesser extent for affordable healthcare, I also have family in Oz and Canada.