Tourists, migrants to pay for medical services in UK

Britain's National Health Service (NHS) will begin charging overseas visitors, including tourists, and migrants for medical services under new rules aimed at tackling the abuse of the free healthcare system.
The NHS is well-known around the world for providing free basic healthcare to all but this will change by March 2014, when the UK government will set out detailed plans on how overseas visitors and migrants will be charged for services.
The move is aimed at tackling health tourism, especially by a growing number of visitors from nearby European Union countries.
The Accidents and Emergency (A&E) department will still be open to all in an emergency but there will be a bill to pay afterwards for patients from overseas.

Other changes planned as part of a government consultation include extending charging for prescriptions to people from overseas, and requiring them to pay higher charges for services that are subsidised for patients entitled to NHS care, such as optical and dental services.
There are also plans to introduce a new system of identifying and recording patients who should be charged for NHS services.

Consultations with general practitioners (GPs) and nurses will remain free, which the government believes will reduce risks to public health such as HIV, TB and sexually transmitted infections.
"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 hardworking British taxpayers who fund it," said Health Minister Lord Howe.

"We know that we need to make changes across the NHS to better identify and charge visitors and migrants. Introducing charging at primary care is the first step to achieving this.
"We are already looking at taking action and next year we will set out our detailed plans to clamp down on the abuse of our NHS," he said.
The announcement follows a Department of Health study that estimated up to 500 million pounds could be recovered from overseas visitors' and migrants' use of the NHS every year.
"We cannot have a situation where any patient with a serious health need is deterred from visiting a GP, especially if their condition raises a potential public health risk," cautioned Chaand Nagpaul, who leads the British Medical Association's GP committee.