hungryhorace

That's easy. One could give their family GP's name & address.

It's a fair point. My personal view is that when a person has paid 10+ years into the NHS, they should always be able to fall back on it if the time arises. When you look at the amount of foreigners coming to (ab)use the NHS it takes the piss that those who are British citizens who have paid into the NHS previously are now being charged to use it. It goes against everything the NHS was originally created for, which was taking care of British citizens regardless of ability to pay.

BTW - No other country has an NHS, yet doesn't stop Britain offering it despite opposition.

mikelincs

The problem is that there are many thousands who live full time abroad, but always go back to the UK for any medical reason for free treatment, if they are not paying into the system, then why should they have the right to use it, many of them may well have contributed 15 years of NI payments, some 30 years ago, but they insist they have the 'right' to keep getting free treatment, despite the fact thaqt the amount they have contributed was used up many years ago. Many of them pay far more in airfares than their treatment would have cost them in the country they live in.

petitefrancaise

getting on my high horse again!

The NHS is funded by current taxation. If you had a car accident but hadn't paid this year's premium, you wouldn't expect them to pay your bill would you? Same goes for the NHS. And the really great thing about the NHS is that everyone who lives in the UK can get good free treatment regardless of income. That is EXACTLY what it was set up to do - to help those in need. It is stretched already by the costs of equipment and medicines because everybody's expectations of care are much higher than when the NHS was set up.
We paid our travel insurance happily, I just wish I could have paid it directly to the NHS as a premium not a US company. (Now there's a thought?)

Now, it's my day off and I'm off to Marks and Sparks online!!

Have a lovely day folks and enjoy the sunshine xx

hungryhorace

I can only speak for myself, but if I got ill here (as I have done, and have been very impressed with the US system so far) I would use the US system as that's where I live, and - for all its criticism - it's actually damn good (here in MA at least AND if you have insurance of course).

The only time I would return home to use the NHS is if I was either dying or did not have insurance here in the US (ie, I lost my job and I didn't have a wife whose healthcare I could go on).

hungryhorace

I see where you're coming from, but the analogy doesn't quite work. The NHS is actually more of a retirement fund; you rarely (if ever) use it when you are young and healthy, yet as your approach your later years your use of the NHS will increase. Taxpayers are, in practice, paying for their own long term care on the NHS.

BTW - re M&S, be careful of their import fees. Lots of talk about that in these forums.

Pulaski

Which, if you have medical insurance in the US, you probably didn't need to do (at least the medical portion of it.

scrubbedexpat099

The NHS is a pay as you go but not connected with NI, not sure why that keeps coming up.

How would you be in the UK obtaining NHS treatment and not pay taxes? You can not even fly in without paying a lot of taxes.

I never resigned from my Doctor, but I think they dump you after so many years.

I remember my Grandmother going to the Doctor in her 60's, Doctor mentioned they had not seen her for a while, as in 30 years! Different times.

scrubbedexpat099

Some years back when my wife was living and working in the Uk she wanted to use her US Insurance, mega problems setting it up, but once done she never had to wait to get an appointment.

hungryhorace

Exactly. My experience, with good insurance and living in a state that has world class healthcare, is that I can get a GP appointment when I want one (within a week or so) and a specialist visit (one I just booked yesterday as it happens) is no later than a fortnight.

The specialist visit will cost me a $15 copay. In the UK, privately, that would cost me the first 100 GBP at least.

Pulaski

Indeed. 16.67% of almost every penny you spend in the UK goes directly to the Exchequer. Our 12 days in England earlier in the summer saw taxes paid massively greater than our medical insurance for a month.

That said, I was booted out of my last GP in the US for not visiting often enough! ..... I was going to have to reregister as a "new patient" and have an initial medical to be reaccepted as a patient, ..... and all I wanted was my tetanus booster.

scrubbedexpat099

I had to edit, I meant that she got immediate appointments at her UK Doctor.

Here we do not have a problem, the Surgery closed up a few months back!

scrubbedexpat099

I assumed it was a lot more than that?

Pulaski

Conservatively 4x, could have been 5 or 6x. ..... or prorated 12d v a month, somewhere between 8x and 14x.

scrubbedexpat099

UK taxation is about half of GDP so directly or indirectly that may be a good enough figure.

You buy a Burger, you see the VAT but not all the other taxes hidden into the bill.

rpjs

The UK government is proposing to allow ex-pats access to the NHS as visitors so long as they have paid in enough years of NI.