NHSBRITISH expats living in Spain are to be frozen out by an NHS clampdown.

Many British people living abroad, regularly return to the UK for doctors’ visits or for operations, as it can often be a bureaucratic nightmare to register with local health authorities in a foreign country.

However, under new regulations that come into effect this month, people will no longer be able to pop home to make the most of the NHS.

The new rules will make NHS users declare where they are ‘ordinarily resident’.

“Free NHS treatment is provided on the basis of someone being ‘ordinarily resident’. It is not dependent upon nationality, payment of UK taxes, national insurance contributions, being registered with a GP, having an NHS number or owning property in the UK,” said a Department of Health spokesman.

An European agreement states that all EU citizens should receive healthcare in the country they live in, regardless of their nationality or citizenship.

Expats seeking emergency treatment in the UK could also face steep fines if they don’t have paperwork from their country of residence in place.

On average the NHS loses a massive €695 million each year in revenue.

 

Subscribe to the Olive Press

6 COMMENTS

  1. Since the ruling Tories seek all the dosh they can get… from anyplace…. does that mean a British Ex Pat who worked for many years in the “UK” and paid all their NHS/Taxes, et al., has to now “claim” they are an emigrant, seeking “political asylum” to get NHS medical services owed to them??
    IF so, vote the Tories out of Office since their PM is out of touch with the REST of UK citizens!
    “UK” has tried Labour with terrible results, the Tories lie in their election Manifesto and don’t keep their word …. that leaves UKIP, who at least talks like business & the people of the UK. BS walks!

  2. It would be worse under Labour, they wouldn’t care about expats. Remember they are the Party that opened the door to hundreds of thousands from Eastern Europe. UKIP does speak for the ordinary people, unlike our PC media who want to destroy the UK.

  3. Some interesting comments on here. This new legislation is a bit rich when you consider the NHS has become an International Health Service in recent years and people with no connection with the UK who have never paid a penny into the system have been treated free of charge. Something needs to change.

  4. So what is changing? It was my understanding that once we told UK we were leaving we were no longer to healthcare in UK so had to get n EHIC fromSpain. No problem as in the state health system here alhough they willonly give us one for80 days per year so it’s a trip to theCcAISs office beforeeach trip. A bit annoying having paid into the UK system for 40 years. However now pay my taxes in Spain so whyshould UK give me free health care?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.