Health Tourism Measure

[mushroom25]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32281155

a well-meaning attempt to ensure those not entitled to free healthcare don't take us for a ride.

but.

since the NHS will need to protect itself from accusations of discrimination, presumably everyone will have to comply.

so, mrs miggins whose never driven, and never been abroad; what happens if she can't prove she was born in acacia avenue and hasn't moved for the last 57 years?

[ummmm]

Birth cert, electoral role, doctors records.

[dannyk13]

According to the report in the Mail bank statements and utility bills will also be acceptable.

[mrs_overall]

The whole system for dealing with health tourists is a joke.
I personally know a Ghanain who came here on 'holiday' knowing full well she had Lupus and was going into end stage renal failure.
At a conservative estimate, her treatment alone has cost approximately £1 million so far, and that does not take into account the cost of the nursing home she lives in, benefits etc.

[retrocop]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2192694/Nigerian-woman-needing-Caesarean-immediately-flies-Britain-operation--costing-UK-taxpayers-10-000.html

This makes my blood boil and I hope the new measures will stamp it out.
There is another Nigerian woman in today's DM who flew to the UK to have quintuplets at a cost to us of £200,000.It cost £35,000 per week for her stay at Homerton hospital and she stated that she didn't have the means to pay the bill. Transpires her husband is a wealthy business man who owns logistics company, hotel and business centre in Lagos. And we give foreign aid to Nigeria. I doubt this government will chase up the Nigerian government for the costs owed. I don't suppose withdrawal of aid might discourage their health tourists.

[tonyav]

Nooooo, health tourists wouldn't take us for a ride !.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/04/04/farages-remarks-on-health-tourism-are-very-offensive-explains-hiv-infected-health-tourist/

[RandyMarsh]

Is Mrs Miggins ok?, does anyone know what happened to her?

[retrocop]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2011249/Bimbo-Ayelabola-Nigerian-mother-cost-NHS-200k-working-illegally-Avon-Lady.html

This is the link I was trying to find earlier.

[retrocop]

tonyav
Makes you wonder who the loony,fruitcake party really is now!!! :-)

[trt]

She died, while waiting for proof you was English.

[douglas9401]

Randy, don't worry, she's back working in the pie shoppe.

[RandyMarsh]

conflicting accounts, we need to ask Mr Benn, he lives on Acacia Avenue.

[tonyav]

retrocop
tonyav
Makes you wonder who the loony,fruitcake party really is now!!! :-)


Certainly does, retrocop.

[douglas9401]

You can’t refuse to give someone treatment once they’re in the country, as we’re talking about human life.....

Yes, you can. Every time we're blackmailed by these chancers it's an invitation for more to follow.

[youngmafbog]

We need to get hard.

If the bleeding heart hand wringing lefty liberal brigade want to give them treatment then fine, I say to you; set up a charity and YOU fund it with YOUR money not taxpayers' money.

[fiction-factory]

Does anyone what happens in other countries- in places like USA and in Europe- if you turn up wanting healthcare. Do they insist on money up front and leave them to suffer or go back home if they can't pay, or do they treat and try to recover the money afterwards?

[retrocop]

A colleague of mine's daughter worked for American Airlines at Victoria Station check in desk.Having passed several stiff exams she was invited,courtesy of AA, to attend with her entire family the graduation ceremony at Fort Worth Airport, Dallas. My colleague took his aged Mum and Dad,wife and two other daughters. The flights were free and he did not bother with medical insurance.They decided to stay 2 weeks and take in Disney World as well. Aged father had a coronary and was admitted to hospital for several days. My colleague had to leave his father in the States and rush back to the UK where he re-mortgaged his house to pay for his fathers treatment and release from the states.He asked his brother for financial help and got two fingers because he wasn't invited to the freeby. Penny wise.Pound foolish.The US would not let his Dad out the country until payment was settled.

[fiction-factory]

I'm still not sure how that works, retrocop. Would they have kept him in jail in the US until he paid? What if the family hadn't remortgaged or indeed said "can't pay/won't pay"?

[retrocop]

I have no idea what the consequences would of been if the payment was not forthcoming.May be the US would demand payment,and most likely get it, from HMG if poverty was tendered as an excuse not to pay the thousands of dollars owed.Both colleague and father were house owners at the time so I assume our government would have recouped the payment somehow. After all we all know the special relationship we had with the US at that time.
Still the US got their money and quite rightly so.They are not a soft touch and my colleague took a gamble,knowing the possible consequences,so sympathy was not forth coming for the sake of a few quid travel insurance.

[fiction-factory]

I agree something needs to be done, but I can see the difficulties of trying to get money from families/governments in places like Nigeria

[retrocop]

As I suggested earlier.If we are to splosh out buckets of money to countries who we give foreign aid then we can recoup what is owed by deductions before delivery of our largesse that continually gets abused.