NHS axes free health care for expats
Friday, February 14, 2014 @ 11:02 AM
Thousands of British expats who have taken early retirement and settled in Europe will lose free access to their local health care system.
The British government is set to scrap a facility by which UK citizens under the state retirement age can get free treatment in countries such as Spain and France when they do not qualify through employment.
The change is likely to occur on April 1, according to the Department of Health. It is one of series of cost-saving moves under review across the National Health Service.
It means that the NHS will no longer reimburse another European state for health costs incurred by non-working Britons under pensionable age.
Currently, many unemployed expats under age 65 (or women under 60) within the European Economic Area effectively pass their care costs to the Treasury.
They do so by completing Social Security residual form S1 before leaving the UK. This gives the holder, and probably his or her dependants, up to two and half years' free health care access................
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THE REGIONAL health authority in Valencia has announced a new scheme for obtaining healthcare.
Read about it here