Health tourism

Fact checks related to the ineligible and foreign nationals using NHS services

18 November 2019

Claim that immigrants “only” pay £400 surcharge to use the NHS ignores their tax contributions

At the moment, the immigration health surcharge is £400 for non-EEA immigrants to the UK, but their tax payments also contribute to the running of things like the NHS.

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6 September 2018

How much does the UK recover in health costs from the EU?

A post circulating on Facebook makes claims about how much the UK pays out to other EU countries for health costs incurred by UK citizens abroad.

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25 May 2017

UKIP Manifesto: Health tourism

We've factchecked claims from UKIP's 2017 election manifesto.

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6 February 2017

How much can we charge people from overseas to use the NHS?

The government has an “ambition” to recover £500 million a year by 2017/18 from overseas patients not eligible for free NHS treatment.

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3 February 2017

Health tourism savings won't plug the hole in NHS funding

Estimates show health tourism costs up to £300 million a year, but savings from this alone won't fill the gap in funding for the NHS.

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21 December 2016

Health tourism: what's the cost?

The government has previously estimated that "health tourism" costs the NHS around 0.3% of NHS spending allocated to specific services.

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22 November 2016

Passports for the NHS?

A London hospital has announced it will be asking women who receive maternity services to provide ID before treatment to determine whether they should be charged.

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13 April 2015

Health tourists: How much do they cost and who pays?

Where the £1.8 billion figure comes from, and the best rough estimates we have of deliberate and normal use of the NHS by foreigners.

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18 June 2014

Not all NHS international visitors are health tourists

We factchecked whether migrants will now be paying for the NHS.

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28 October 2013

Health tourism - what's the bill?

Spotlight on health tourism including who counts as a 'health tourist' and how much it's costing the UK.

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