Britain has paid out a staggering ?736million to EU countries over healthcare scheme

[super jumbe]

Labour MP John Mann has called the bombshell figures the ?greatest scandal of our times?

But we paid out a staggering ?736 million over the same period under the arrangement, which gives travellers access to free healthcare across Europe.

And the number of EU citizens using the EHIC card to claim free healthcare in the UK has soared from 3,854 a year to 18,167 in just five years.

Last year the UK claimed back just ?31million from other EU countries, while paying out ?130million ? even though there are three times as many EU citizens in the UK than British citizens in Europe.

MPs said the figures exposed yet more evidence of UK taxpayers being ripped off by health tourism.

?The entire NHS deficit would be wiped out by collecting this money from foreign governments.

?This is the biggest scandal of our times.?

Countries can claim back health costs from other member states when their citizens use medical services overseas.

The biggest pay-outs go to France ? who claimed ?221million over the last five years ? 11 times as much as the UK got back from the French.

Germany claimed ?85million back, while Ireland clawed ?55million back from UK taxpayers over the period.

More than 500million citizens across Europe have access to the EHIC card.

It can be used to claim free or discounted healthcare in all 28 EU member states as well as Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

Ukip MP Douglas Carswell said: ?We don?t have enough GPs and NHS bosses are looking to make cuts ? yet we are paying out ?5 in health care costs under this scheme for every ?1 we get back.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3015294/britain-has-paid-out-a-staggering-736million-to-eu-countries-over-healthcare-scheme-five-times-more-than-nhs-has-claimed-back/

[super jumbe]

Never too let, good if we can get brexit as soon as posible before we are skinnet...

[Johnner]

So basically...what the article points out is.....your government structure is utter pants

And you go blaming the EU for your incompetence ?

Works both ways,my friend

Always has...

[bonus2010]

It would seem that our government is totally incompetent by not claiming all that is due from other member states. That’s a good enough reason for not being a member of the EU because at this rate we’re not going to have enough money to fund the NHS, so best to devolve the UK government of that responsibility of managing the EU health scheme as intended.

[GastonJ]

Nor does that indicate how much

Was paid back by private patients, e.g. those individuals in the EU who were billed directly by the Trust
Of the bill from France, and other UK countries, was due to Trusts (mostly in the south) sending patients to France to ease their own workload. This does happen

One sided article as usual. Government attempt to justify it's own incompetence and again try to justify why th NHS has no money and that the EU is costing us money - when in reality the statistics *spit* given are incomplete

[super jumbe]

To be honest the NHS has nothing to do with the EU.

The NHS is Labour’s proudest creation and was founded it in 1948 because health is a human right, not a privilege.
Senior figures behind the campaign to pull Britain out of the European Union have advocated charging patients to use the NHS and cutting ?50 billion of public expenditure to reduce the deficit.
On Friday Vote Leave suggested that a large chunk of the UK's ?10.6 billion net contribution to Brussels could be diverted to fund the NHS if Britain quits the EU.
Look our NHS is struggling to cope with rising demand and needs the support that is currently siphoned off to Brussels.
“Instead of handing over ?350 million a week to the EU we should spend our money on our priorities like the NHS."

[GastonJ]

The information that you have is incorrect. The NHS has been charging both EU and UK patients for a very long time. I was billed by the NHS for the attendance of an ambulance in an RTA - they figured my insurance company would pay. Back in 1981 it was ?28. Non UK patients have been nilled for as long as I can remember, so that's nothing new. The reciprocal arrangements with various countries where we treat their patients and they treat ours, not just the EU, has been in place for a very long time as well.

Vote leave just lied, told everyone that the EU was costing us, that ?365 million would e comping back into the UK, that immigration for the EU would stop, that we wouldn't be subject to legislation, that companies would not leave the UK and that trade deals would be set up in minutes.

After the vote

The ?365 million doesn't really exist
Farmers will get an exemption to employ EU immigrants
Anything we sell in teh EU will still have to meet their regulations
HSBC are looking to relocate, Nissan will no longer invest - let's watch these
India says it will take years to negotiate a trade deal

So yeah since most of those idiots are in government, would you really believe them?

[Meat-Head]

Nissan will no longer invest - let's watch these
India says it will take years to negotiate a trade dealm?

No wounder nelson mandella dont reply to Tweets

what junk do we want to buy from india? Tata? City rover things?

[super jumbe]

No wounder nelson mandella dont reply to Tweets

what junk do we want to buy from india? Tata? City rover things?

Tata nearly got bankrumpt with British steel end of the game for India trade...

[GastonJ]

It was the UK government that almost bought the UK steel industry down again, not Tata. Was the Tories who vetoed higher tariffs that the EU wanted to set last year against cheap Chinese steel, and as a result cheap Chinese imports cked things up. India belongs to the Commonwealth, an Organisation that the Gove, Boris and Nige insist we can do trade deals with really quickly.

Anything that this goverment says about the EU should be verified and checked. You'll find that they're not truth telling and haven't been for a while.