visting the UK with new baby - NHS question

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Feb 8th 2011, 1:30 pm

#16

MarylandNed

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Re: visting the UK with new baby - NHS question

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marocco

Legally, you are eligible for NHS treatment if you are "ordinarily resident" in the UK. There is no simple, precise definition of what that means, and the status also depends on the person's intentions. Of course, it comes with potential UK tax liabilities.

This useful link describes what they mean by "ordinarily resident". It also describes which services can be obtained free of charge and which services might involve a fee if you are not ordinarily resident in the UK.

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/E...able/DH_074374

Anyone who is deemed to be ordinarily resident in the UK is entitled to free NHS hospital treatment in England. “Ordinarily resident” is a common law concept interpreted by the House of Lords in 1982 as someone who is living lawfully in the United Kingdom voluntarily and for settled purposes as part of the regular order of their life for the time being, with an identifiable purpose for their residence here which has a sufficient degree of continuity to be properly described as settled.

Anyone who is not ordinarily resident is subject to the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989, as amended. These regulations place a responsibility on NHS hospitals to establish whether a person is ordinarily resident; or exempt from charges under one of a number of exemption categories; or liable for charges.

If you are not ordinarily resident or exempt under the Regulations, charges will apply for any hospital treatment you receive and cannot be waived. If this is the case you are strongly advised to take out private healthcare insurance that would cover you for the length of time you are in the UK. There is no facility to purchase healthcare insurance from the NHS therefore any necessary insurance must be organised privately.

Last edited by MarylandNed; Feb 8th 2011 at 1:34 pm.

Feb 8th 2011, 1:53 pm

#17

Yorkieabroad

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Re: visting the UK with new baby - NHS question

Quote:

Originally Posted by CamVet

Charging people means needing an administration able to deal with things like generating invoices, receiving payment, dealing with customers on the phone, following up aged debtors, etc. In this case it gets even more complicated by the fact that all debtors live abroad, and are subject to and/or protected by a whole array of foreign laws which are very hard to track for every single country. Anyone who's ever ran a business knows this costs money. For many NHS trusts where overseas visitors are rarer than hen's teeth it may be cheaper not to charge !

Thats right - in the area I am there are probably so few overseas visitor patients that it simply wasn't worth them setting up the system. I guess instead of making a charity donation we could have sent a cheque to the local NHS Trust, but that would probably set a hare running and get someone in trouble!

Feb 8th 2011, 8:26 pm

#18

mmhendrie

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Re: visting the UK with new baby - NHS question

thanks very much everyone - plenty of terrific info.

Sounds like the NHS is trying to strike the right balance (might take a while to get it right) - although a non-resident now, I never liked that folks from other countries could get non-essential or non-emergency treatments on the British taxpayers dime.

Sounds like step one for me will be to verify our US health insurance covers us on the trip, if not, its worth getting something to cover us for the trip.

thanks!
-Matt