GBTOUSA

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/ar...h-tourist.html


Blimey - so expats are totally ineligible for NHS care? Even as UK citizens, if we've paid taxes and continue to file UK taxes?

Sheesh -that's scary.

Beedubya

I think they are looking at it LITERALLY as if she is a tourist:

Mrs Read intends to continue volunteering in the Amazon and according to the Department of Health patients are ineligible for free care if they are intending to return abroad after their treatment.

dunroving

No, they are not eligible - that has been covered on here dozens of times. I'm sure if you search for NHS you'll find half a dozen threads on the subject posted over just the past few weeks.

However, describing 3 months as an "extended period" seems excessive. This is one case where some Jobsworth has taken his or her job too seriously, I think.

I note the journalist called her "illegible" - ironic. Maybe they don't use dictionairies at the Mail.

dunroving

Seems like she was a victim of being too honest, in that case.

Sally Redux

Why does the Daily Mail always get people to put on that terribly sad and devastated face for photos? Yuk.

dunroving

I think they make liberal use of Photoshop. (the Misery Toolbar)

Grayling

They don't......that look is the result of reading the Daily Mail

Sally Redux

That really is true

GBTOUSA

OK - I think I've "sort of" got it clear - no NHS on a visit (which makes perfect sense) but if I were to move back, assuming I had been back for 12 months and was intending to stay - as a permanent resident - then I would be re-eligible.

My fear was permanent NHS exclusion even if I returned to the UK permanently. Of course rules can change and that still might happen.....sheesh

They seem to be interpreting the rules pretty tightly for that lady

dunroving

If you move back permanently, you are eligible from Day 1 - go trawl the old threads if you haven't already done so.

The problem with the lady in question is that a) she didn't come back to live permanently, she intended to leave as soon as her treatment was done, and b) she made the mistake of telling them that.

Beedubya

Exactly!!!

sallysimmons

I'd like a penny for every time someone starts a thread in a panic after reading something in the Daily Mail. I'd soon be able to afford to move back

Beedubya

The good old Daily Fail.

pennylessinindia

This is a good reminder to those long term overseas to always take insurance when you travel back to the UK
many of my friends in the UK laugh when I say I have insurance but I have always known that once you go you are not entitled to non emergency treatment. A fair system really so any visitor (non EU) whether or not Brit cit has to pay.
Good ole daily mail - would have been the first to highlight someone from India say on a visit who took medical care so why not a brit who has clearly said they are intending to return overseas -

Xebedee

Do you think there'd be any problem with having had no recent medical history in England? I mean, all I have is an old cardboard NI card to prove the number with a long-expired address on it.
The last time I visited the Doc over there, he had an ashtray on his desk and still made house-calls.