The point is just if have no cash for treatment and are a Brit surely first thing you would do is get on a plane and get free treatment and care in the UK providing of course you can fly hence the question.
The point is just if have no cash for treatment and are a Brit surely first thing you would do is get on a plane and get free treatment and care in the UK providing of course you can fly hence the question.
Two good friends of mine both contracted throat cancer about the same time here in Thailand. It's a long story...anyway, my mate, Jim got his arse back to Blighty, received the treatment and appeared to be OK.
David had his treatment here, I never asked about the cost ( he's cashed up ) several years on and he's still OK although he's still on the fags.
Jim was fine for a couple of years but it sadly returned and he spent his final months in a hospice.
and thats the problem.providing of course you can fly
an accident rendering one immobile, a fall resulting in a compound fracture requiring urgent surgery, a stroke, appendicitis or any of the hundreds of ailments that can leave one racked with pain and needing urgent hospitalisation.
thailand has hundreds of hospitals, all with empty beds that need filling, and thousands of doctors that need income to meet the payments on their bmws and wives jewellery. unlike the west where one needs to be on deaths door before they will admit you to hospital, in thailand they cant wait to get you hooked up to a drip and stuff you full of meds. i know someone, a thai, who was advised a stay of 3 or 4 days for observation of a broken fingernail, in case it became infected.
and airlines are reluctant to take sick or unwell passengers unless they are being repatriated and accompanied by a nurse or medic under the terms of an insurance policy.
one needs to be on ones toes and/or have a very good wingman to exert some control any kind of medical event here in thailand, because once the hospitals get you, they may be reluctant to let you go.
Essentially, a British citizen resident abroad who takes ill while on a visit to the UK is not eligible for free NHS healthcare because they would fail the 'ordinarily resident' test. However, those over the age of 65 in receipt of a British state pension allowance who had spent at least 10 years resident in the UK were entitled but this concession was withdrawn, after some 40 plus years, by that cvunt Jeremy Hunt in 2015 in order to save a few bob, the amount of which has never been quantified but would not be expected to pay for the wings of a new F35 aircraft.
If a Brit does return from abroad and seeks treatment they can still qualify for free treatment if they declare that they are resuming their UK residence. In practice a Health Authority must provide that care but will probably seek to confirm it by some documentary means which can be submitted over a period of time subsequent to the receipt of treatment - we are looking at a pattern of bank account use, the payment of utilities and evidence of accommodation. Once the HA is satisfied the punter has met the requirement of the NHS rules then they are off the hook and can then return to wherever without fear of getting an invoice.
Irrespective of what one might think, it has to be said that denying a British citizen who has paid his NI contributions and taxes over 40 years of employment, and who still pays UK tax on his UK pension incomes, access to NHS treatment is a pretty cvuntish thing to do even for a Tory worm-ridden turd, especially when it has been a concession for over 40 fucking years.
In my evening prayers I often include the exhortation that Jeremy Cvunt is stricken with an aggressive bowel cancer that has him reduced to a diet of baby food as his guts dribble slowly out of his arse and he eventually expires in torment with a degree of pain and anguish that not even fentanyl can deaden.
Emergency care to preserve life and remove the immediate threat to it by medical intervention is covered, but after...... " Ok, we've stitched you up but the bone infection is still there so you will need to keep on these meds and we shall need to see you every week for tests and examination but this is no longer classed as emergency care so..." or " Oh, we found what we established is the beginning of testicular cancer, how would you like to pay for that?"
With each year the HAs are now compelled by statutory obligations to confirm a person admitted to hospital qualifies for free treatment. Sight of Brit passport and speaking not like a coon is enough but otherwise if the NHS admissions officer suspects foreign residence they will ask for UK utilities invoices, bank statements and council tax records. Many now have a designated full time staff wallah to pursue this and to submit invoices and begin enforcement proceedings through collection agents.
Incidentally Prag, because you served in the armed forces you are exempt from the 2015 curtailment of the OAP/foreign resident concession.
very few nhs hospitals have debt collecting facilities, or even finance departments geared up to bill patients. hospitals close to major international airports such as heathrow or gatwick may very well be wise to darker toned health tourists from xxxxxx or the xxxxxx xxxx flying in to deliver their baby or top their aids meds, but a brit suffering from say angina, kidney stones or an emergency is unlikely to be challenged other than being asked to tick the box confirming their uk residency.
obviously, arriving at a & e with a deep suntan, wearing a chang beer wifebeater and flip flops and wheeling a suitcase might raise an eyebrow or two, but most of the desk staff at nhs hospitals are not trained to challenge "clients" and probably couldnt give a damn anyway.
but no uk expat should be without a uk address (at a relatives house) a gp registration and a uk driving licence.
Ok but how hard are they going to chase you and the reason people would go back to the UK is they are potless anyway and cant get blood out of a stone as they say.
I think if you actually read the subsequent SIs to the 2015 SI you will see the Secretary of State for the Dept. Health makes it plain HAs/Trusts are now compelled to introduce protocols enforcing the requirement that free NHS care is restricted to those qualified to receive it.
and who exactly is going to enforce those protocols?HAs/Trusts are now compelled to introduce protocols enforcing the requirement that free NHS care is restricted to those qualified to receive it.
somebody flies in for treatment, has the treatment and then flies out.
do you think the nhs will send a bill to mr. adebowale thicklips out in nigeria and actually expect the bill to be paid?
either they take payment before treatment or arrest non payers on the spot, and the liberal idiots who dictate public opinion would never condone that.
yooman rights, our duty to give care to the sick, blaa blaa blaa.
I don't disagree with any of those deserving karma in trumps, but a longterm expat friend with a troublesome, expensive though not life threatening condition called the tax people from LHR to inform that he's back and intends to resume stay in the UK, then went from the airport to re-register with his former GP, couple or few days later was being treated in hospital first as an outpatient then in. Not sure if living abroad but paying UK taxes made a difference.
For U.S. residents/citizens eligible for Medicare, there is a right of returning persons to enroll or re-enroll in Medicare within two months of their return from overseas residence under what they consider "Special Enrollment Period" (note the caveat at the end, so probably one needs to establish some sort of residence (e.g. with a family member of friend) before checking into the hospital :
Changes in residenceHousehold moves that qualify you for a Special Enrollment Period:
Moving to the U.S. from a foreign country or United States territory
Note: Moving only for medical treatment or staying somewhere for vacation doesn’t qualify you for a Special Enrollment Period.
As for repatriation - this could work in either direction (e.g. my wife would struggle to take care of me here, but would find it easy in Thailand, while medical care at a higher level is more affordable here). To re-assure her I have printed out EVA's web FAQ about transport of persons needing assistance which is pretty comprehensive and affordable:
http://www.evaair.com/en-us/managing...al-assistance/
From Post #72
https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/thailand-set-to-deny-visas-to-retirees-without-insurance/
Thailand set to deny visas to retirees without insurance
By Teirra Kamolvattanavith
May. 15, 2019
Older foreigners living in Thailand will lose their visas without adequate health insurance under new rules still being written and yet to go into effect.
The Public Health Ministry and related agencies will meet again May 22 to discuss a proposal to mandate health insurance for all long-stay expats over 50 applying for one-year retirement visas.
Norton - as per above - they're meeting again tomorrow to "discuss" the proposal - so it'll be a bit of time before reports of denials (if, in fact, the proposal is implemented) start showing up. Of course, on the expat forums the topic will be discussed again and again and again...
Then we have this tid bit of information....
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The new requirements, which were approved by Cabinet in April and announced by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), state that people applying or renewing (or rather re-applying for) a Non-Immigrant Visa OA now need to have health insurance from either a Thai insurance company or from a policy bought overseas.
The requirement for mandatory health insurance appears to only affect those applying for a Non-Immigrant Visa OA.
]According to the announcement on the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) website, it does not affect anyone who stays in Thailand on an extension of stay based on retirement, which is often incorrectly referred to as a ‘retirement visa’.
Extensions of stay are not visas. Most retirees who stay in Thailand do so on an ‘extension of stay based on retirement’.
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That said above, sounds like if you are living here on extensions whether it be O-A or an O this will not impact people.
As an aside, I understand that some time ago the Brit embassy wallahs approached the Thai to explore the possibility that long term residents could enrol in the Thai health care system by paying an annual fee. I believe that Brits, Krauts and others living in Turkey on retirement extensions do this and it affords a safety net for basic care in addition to private insurance provisions if required. Needless to say, the Thai rejected this without any consideration.
Looks like I was right though that they are going to fleece grunters 40,000 - 50,000 baht a year for this crap 400k cover.
A few posts above there was discusion regarding UK authorities chasing medical bills for people not qualifying for free treatment...
A couple of years ago during a Christmas visit to the UK my wife developed a small problem downstairs. Not serious but could have been if not sorted.
It's impossible to get a doctor's appointment in the UK so we went to A & E which was regarded as emergency treatment so free of charge. Unfortunately my wife needed a small procedure the following day at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. Small but needing general anaesthetic so costs were escalating. This was necessary but not classed as emergency for some reason.
Despite the fact I've maintained NI payments the 20 or so years I have lived away from the UK, we were not covered for free treatment (and not just my wife, I was told had it been me needing treatment, hI would not have been covered unless moving back to the UK).
My Thai wife also has an Aussie passport and would have been covered for free treatment under a reciprocal agreement if we lived in Australia, but unfortunately not.
The 1300 quid bill was sent after we returned back to Thailand with a lot of paperwork promising non payment would result in UK immigration getting involved and preventing my wife from entering the UK in the future. I would also have faced problems on entering the UK they said. Don't know how well that would have been enforced but not a risk I would take. If you're a one off visitor to the UK then maybe no problem to leave an unpaid bill.
As it happened we were covered under my wife's Thai holiday insurance so were reimbursed anyway.
Mendip - glad it worked out for you.
You have to fight with. My experiences are, of course with USA healthcare and immigration. Had serious damage to my back USD $450k. Over the course of 18 months of treatment and operations and two years of wrangling over "invoices". Had "several" that insurance refused to pay as "not covered", "subscribers responsibility", "out-of-network", plus a slew of refusals because some clerk got a couple of charge numbers backasswards. Anyway, I fought 'em, challenged their interpretations, filed several formal "appeals", and, in the end when all was said and done. I won, in that I only paid what I was resposible for. But a ton of hours, work, and arguing. My responsibility was about $2k.
Had a friend apply for immigration for his wife - application "denied" three times. On his fourth appeal - she was granted conditional status.
In the USA seems you have to fight 'em - first words out of their mouths are "NO".
Last edited by bowie; 21-05-2019 at 02:32 PM.
I know 3 colleagues/friends that ended up filing Bankruptcy as the insurance companies ran them in circles for a few years and they gave up as they had numerous collections against them already so their credit was toast. Interestingly it worked out well for them. Regardless that's the insurance companies MO, keeping saying NO hoping you will succumb
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/this...ankruptcy.html
This is the real reason most Americans file for bankruptcy
PUBLISHED MON, FEB 11 2019 11:32 AM ESTUPDATED MON, FEB 11 2019 2:20 PM EST
Lorie Konish@LORIEKONISH
KEY POINTS
· Two-thirds of people who file for bankruptcy cite medical issues as a key contributor to their financial downfall.
· While the high cost of health care has historically been a trigger for bankruptcy filings, the research shows that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act has not improved things.
· What most people do not realize, according to one researcher, is that their health insurance may not be enough to protect them.
SIphotography | Getty Images
Filing for bankruptcy is often considered a worst-case scenario.
And for many Americans who do pursue that last-ditch effort to rescue their finances, it is because of one reason: health-care costs.
A new study from academic researchers found that 66.5 percent of all bankruptcies were tied to medical issues —either because of high costs for care or time out of work. An estimated 530,000 families turn to bankruptcy each year because of medical issues and bills, the research found.
Other reasons include unaffordable mortgages or foreclosure, at 45 percent; followed by spending or living beyond one’s means, 44.4 percent; providing help to friends or relatives, 28.4 percent; student loans, 25.4 percent; or divorce or separation, 24.4 percent.
While the findings are consistent with past studies on bankruptcy, the data also highlight a key new factor: whether the Affordable Care Act has reduced the burden of medical debt for people.
“Despite gains in coverage and access to care from the ACA, our findings suggest that it did not change the proportion of bankruptcies with medical causes,” an article on the study published in the American Journal of Public Health states.
In the case of your wife, a person subject to immigration control, she might experience difficulty on seeking entry as a visitor on her Oz ppt ( Ozzies are not visa nationals ) if it is recorded on the system that she is a bad debtor - if she applied for a visa as a Thai she would be refused, almost certainly. However, if you were an undischarged bankrupt and owed the Inland Revenue, the NHS and God Almighty a wedge, it wouldn't matter a flying fart since no one, but no one, can prevent a Brit from entering the UK with a valid British passport under any immigration legislation. Under the Immigration Act 1971 a British citizen in possession of a valid British passport is not subject to control and cannot be detained or refused admission - you can be nicked under the Custom & Excise Management Acts for an offence under that legislation but that is the only circumstance.
Threatening you personally as a Brit is bollocks.
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