NHS loses £500 million a year by not charging foreign nationals

THE NHS could claw back more than £500 million a year if it was better at charging foreign nationals for using NHS services, a report suggests.

The health service could raise the cash - which is the equivalent of 0.45 per cent of its annual budget - by deterring so-called "health tourists", recovering care charges from overseas visitors and charging temporary migrants for accessing NHS care, the report found.

Health tourists - such as women who travel to the UK in late pregnancy and give birth in an NHS hospital before returning home - cost the health service at least £70 million each year, according to the study on migrant access to NHS care in England.

Experts have previously raised concerns about the escalating costs of health tourism particularly across maternity services, oncology, HIV services, infertility and in the treatment of renal failure.

But a recent European Commission report concluded that so-called benefits tourism was "neither widespread nor systematic".

The latest independent report, conducted by Creative Research on behalf of the Department of Health (DH), also estimates that £388 million could be recovered from patients who should pay for care but are not always currently charged by the NHS.

A DH spokeswoman said that only around 16 per cent of this money is currently recovered by health service officials.

The report states that the health service has "some of the most generous rules in the world". At present only hospitals are required to charge for services and even then, emergency care is provided for free.

It concludes that the total cost of visitors and temporary migrants accessing NHS services is between £1.9 billion and £2 billion - but this figure includes some money that is already recovered.

The figures have been released ahead of the second reading of the Government's Immigration Bill, which aims to bring in measures to stop migrants abusing public services and make it easier to remove people who should not be here.

Key measures in the Bill will see temporary migrants, such as overseas students pay to access the NHS, while the appeals process against deportation is to be streamlined.

Ministers hope the levy on students or foreign workers who come to the UK for more than half a year will generate £200 million a year.

The surcharge, combined with better recovery of costs and a deterrent on health tourism could save the health service "well over half a billion ponds", the DH spokeswoman said.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that the NHS is a "national health service - not an international one".

Mr Hunt has pledged to identify a "more efficient system" of claiming back costs and has also appointed Sir Keith Pearson to advise on visitor and migrant cost recovery.

He has also said he will be "introducing a simpler registration process to help identify earlier those patients who should be charged".

Mr Hunt said the report shows there is a "serious problem", adding: "Having a universal health service free at the point of use rightly makes us the envy of the world, but we must make sure the system is fair to the hard-working British taxpayers who fund it," he said




Source:express news