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When Will We Be 'tough Enough'?

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anotheoldgit | 14:37 Thu 14th Feb 2013 | News
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9870246/Foreigners-are-taking-advantage-of-the-NHS-David-Cameron-says.html

Apparently our wise and trusted Premier has only just discovered that Foreigners are taking advantage of our NHS, but at the moment we are not 'tough enough' right now to prevent them from doing so.

/// Speaking to workers at B&Q in Eastleigh, Mr Cameron said the health service should not be free for foreigners from outside the EU. Britain must also get better at charging other EU countries when their citizens use the NHS, he added. ///

All very well him saying that, but isn't it him who holds the power to put an end to such things, I wonder why he hasn't already?

I wonder why he had popped into B&Q?

/// Mr Cameron this week launched a review into how foreigners access benefits.On a visit to support the Conservative Eastleigh by-election campaign, he said this review will look at all welfare payments and services, including health, housing and legal aid as well as traditional benefits. ///

Yes but I bet the foreigners will not be at the top of the list of cuts, it will be aimed at the less fortunate amongst our own citizens.



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Em, like the rest I presume on here, I'm one of the old farts that has paid my Taxes from the day I could work, I have been blessed with good health in my years & has never been on benefits, so I have paid into the system & hardly taken anything out, for a person to come into this country, work for six months the able to draw everything, you tell me thats right? If you want to come into this country you should be able to support yourself financially, speak English, do not expect a house " whilst there are hundreds on the list" that were born here, & before the "few jump" It does not matter what COLOUR, If you have not got the money to support yourself & your family & be able to purchase your own house / accommodation, do not expect this country to keep you, it's as simple as that. Or am I again wrong?
em10

I'm saying that if the figure is £2million (the figure extrapolated up from write-offs according to fullfact), then our efforts would be better served looking at other ways of saving money in the NHS.



the system has to be fairer, that is all, and quite frankly i don't see what happens today as fair at all.
TWR

I can totally understand the argument that those arriving to the UK should be able to support themselves. However, is it not going too far to expect new Britons to forfeit the benefits of our health service?

Are you saying that there should be degrees of benefit? You cannot receive medical treatment until you've been in the country for what? Two years? Five years? Ten years?

What the person needs emergency treatment for a previously in diagnosed condition? What happens if a woman who has entered the country to live permanently becomes pregnant?

What should a worker who falls and breaks a leg do?

And if we ring-fence this public service, doesn't the argument follow that we should also deny access to the police and fire service too?

Why should new arrivals receive the benefit of the police and fire service if they've not paid taxes previously?

Following your argument to its logical conclusion, we should also deny the long term unemployed access to the health service and other publicly funded bodies.

This isn't me playing reductio ad absurdum - I genuinely don't think you can implement a system of graded access to public services. The organisation and beurocracy would be a complete nightmare!

Another point...how would it work where you have an immigrant who is charged upfront for services, but then doesn't need any more medical attention for the rest of their lives? Should they receive a refund?
em10

But what isn't fair?



That should have read:

I genuinely don't think you can'timplement a system of graded access to public services
Thats why its important to have a high turnaround once they are questioned by the border force at the arrival ports. If they are suffering from a known illness or even pregnant return them from whence they came.
R-i-i-g-h-t. Exhaustive, intimate and invasive medical carried out on all- what? - prospective immigrants? asylum seekers? tourists?? - Expensive and time consuming. Not really a practical solution at all.
If they have a previously i diagnosed illness, how will the border police pick that up?

But the key question is about migrants who are to settle in the UK long term. Should they be denied health benefits? And if so, how can hospitals determine how long someone (who's unconscious, brought into A&E) has been in the country?

All this for £2million a year?

It's a bit like someone who earns £250,000 a year trying to economise by not buying his monthly packet of Chewits.
sp....from what I gather, that is not how it works.

The Border Patrol doesn't come into play at all.........the immigrants, foreigners, whatever you would like to call them, sign on to any GP,s list and then they have carte blance to any and all NHS facilities.
I am not suggesting that the practice receptionists get back handlers ( I don't think ) but from what I gather it is quite easy.
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sp1814

/// What the person needs emergency treatment for a previously in diagnosed condition? What happens if a woman who has entered the country to live permanently becomes pregnant? ///

The same as what would happen to you and yours if you and they went to live in a country abroad that didn't have a NHS.

Before anyone is admitted to this country they should be in possession of personal health insurance.
So is the complaint 1) that all foreigners should be refused treatment whatever it is 2) that they should but in accordance with existing rules 3) that the existing rules are not restrictive enough 4) that existing rules are not being complied with, in that they are not properly enforced 5) that foreigners are not paying the bills which they incur through not being eligible under existing rules ? Or some combination of the above?
Fred....LOL.....I have absolutely no idea........the NHS is like a huge monolith, an oil tanker that as lost directional control, cannot be turned around and cannot be stopped.........a journey unimpeded or controlled for the past half century.

Anecdotally....my gardner in Spain has been resident here for 10 years...he is still on a GP,s list in the UK and goes back regularly for all his diabetic tests and a stock up of Insulin.
Another anecdote.....a chap, English, married to a Spanish woman, lived in Spain for 20 yrs, in kidney failure, went back to the UK, got on a GP,s list and had dialysis in the UK until he died some 8 months ago.

Clearly, the UK is a soft touch for health care for foreigners and clearly very little can be done about it for reasons of its magnitude.
sqad, which to be honest is scandalous, and i totally dispute the 2 million quid that SP reckons it costs the NHS for health tourism. Not to mention the millions lost through negligence of NHS employees. If it's not theirs why should they care if NHS equipment goes walkabout..
Sp, what I am saying, If you come here, make sure you have enough to finance yourself, If you come here, Abide by the Law of this land, If you come here, do not expect a Translator, If you come here, do not go running to the Councils for a house, But my main concern on this tiny Blob on the world atlas, the Fecking place is full, shut the gates " Simple"
not so simple, wish it was.
em10

Yes, that £2million does sound incredulous...but that might be because we've all swallowed the £40million nonsense that the papers have fed us for the past few years.
TWR

We're talking specifically about costs to the NHS.

I understand the issues you refer to, but that's widening the scope of the debate.

If we concentrate on the issue of NHS funding and how it's affected by foreign patients, we can see that the press has only been telling us part of the story.

Put simply...we've been lied to, and we've been mugs to accept it.

God only know what else they've lied about.

It would be awesome if everyone pulled their newspapers up whenever they spun us a story, but let's be honest - who has the time!

Thank God for fullfact eh?
so you know the full truth of the matter, whilst everyone else is wrong - great.
takes a while to read, sure there are other articles that one could find, not a DM in sight. Sqad is right about those registering at the GP, once you do there you have access to all the NHS has to offer...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19789397

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