Following the introduction of my NHS Audit Requirements (Foreign National) Bill to Parliament in 2012 and a petition the following year signed by about 700 Crawley residents, I was delighted when the Health Secretary announced last year, as part of a wide ranging crackdown on benefit tourism, that the Government would adopt my concept of a levy paid for on arrival by foreign nationals seeking to remain in the UK. The levy is expected save the NHS an estimated £200 million a year and will ensure that the British taxpayer is no longer left to burden outstanding costs from non-UK residents.
Last week the Secretary of State for Health, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, announced further measures to tackle health tourism by acting to charge non-European Health Insurance Card scheme patients 150 percent of the cost of NHS treatment and better incentivising NHS trusts in England to recover the cost of operations from migrants. This will make sure that, by the middle of the next Parliament, the NHS will recover up to £500 million a year from treating foreign visitors.
Locally, UK Border Force officials see on average 150 cases a year at Gatwick Airport of heavily pregnant passengers arriving with visitor visas. The Government is right to take action in reclaiming the costs of treating foreign nationals, just as Brits are charged if they use health services abroad.
Last year, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister labelled efforts to tackle health tourism as “xenophobic”. Only the Labour Party, which operated an open door policy on immigration whilst in government, could possibly mistake our National Health Service for a global one, whilst all the time forgetting who foots the bill – the ordinary, hardworking British public.
This is about fairness – fairness for the British taxpayer who should not be expected to pay for migrants’ health treatment. The Health Secretary’s announcement comes as part of a raft of new measures introduced by the Prime Minister to ensure that foreign nationals living in the UK pay their fair share and that this country is no longer seen as an ‘easy touch’ by those looking to exploit our service and welfare support.
Other recently introduced measures include tough tests to stop new foreign migrants claiming housing benefit and jobseeker’s benefits too.