tebo53

An article in a couple of Freeby papers suggest that Spain wants to continue the healthcare arrangements with the UK after brexit.

Spain wants health deal for British OAPs | Costa News

Steve

Rosemary

Not at all surprising that they would want it to continue because it is a good source of income for them. Many pensioners never or rarely visit their doctor, many are on minimal prescriptions and many who do become ill return to the UK to be near to their families.

Rosemary

lucilastic

I don`t know why you think British pensioners rarely visit the Spanish health service.Why would they return to the UK when ill(please help me onto the plane!)when having arrived,& this is from my elderly sister who is very English & lives on the affluent south coast,you might wait a week to get an appointment & that may not be with your own GP?I have excellent care here on the costa blanca,in fact my Spanish doctor keeps reminding me about having my annual blood tests,flu jabs,ecg etc.If you go back to be near your family that might be because you want to die in your own country.

Rosemary

You say that your doctor has to remind you about having your yearly tests etc which suggests that you are reasonably healthy so do not need to be constantly at the surgery which is probably the same as many, many pensioners. I too have excellent care here in Spain. I was not saying that people do not visit the doctor due to not wanting to but due to not needing to or only needing to rarely. Regardless of how often any of us utilise the health service the UK pay almost 4000 euros a year for each pensioner so the Spanish government is obviously going to want to keep this income coming into their coffers.

As you rightly said some people want to die in their own country therefore if they become ill they will return when they are able to do so.

Rosemary

bobd22

Well I would imagine that they would want the uk to keep paying. However given that no gnegotiations have began yet I can't see how anyone can predict the end result. It would have to by mutual arrangement and will individual eu states be allowed to make such decisions? I think we must wait and see.

Fred James

I don't see why not. The amount the UK pays Spain for each pensioner is based on the cost of the per capital cost in Spain and vice versa. If it was all paid into a central EU fund and divided out among all the EU nations, then to arrange that after Brexit could be very difficult.

To arrange individual arrangements with non EU countries is possible in many cases. Spain has many individual arrangements with individual countries - the various tax treaties are a good example.