Snap! I just found it too!
That is a real mean thing to do. And I wonder whether it will be legally challenged as seems to be completely unjust.
Although I guess the reality is that if people do need to use the NHS for anything other than an emergency they can just say they have moved back…
That page says:
From previous threads I understood that S1 holders had EHICs issued by the UK.
I also understood that the point of the S1 was that the healthcare costs were met by the UK.
So what we seem to be saying is that post-Brexit S1 holders, whose healthcare costs are met by the UK (and who have paid into the UK system1) are not eligible to have their healthcare costs met by the UK if they fall ill while visiting.
It’s possible I have completely misunderstood this but, if not, you couldn’t make it up.
1] Not forgetting that UK NI is a Ponzi scheme, not an investment scheme so even if you have contributed all your life there is no stash of capital for you to draw on.S1’s have only included NHS cover since about 2016. Jane Williamson was part of the fight that went to the European Court to allow S1 holders to access the NHS. I hope it is challenged as it seems very discriminatory to me. Maybe this will be realised and sense will prevail.
Together with the Overseas Department of the NHS and my then MEP, Sir Graham Watson, I took the French health authorities to the European Commission because they were refusing me access, as an S1 holder in France and, therefore, in the French health system to NHS treatment in UK. They should have referred me to a doctor for a medical opinion, but said that because I was in the French health system I could not have treatment in UK.
I realised that this would apply to all UK holders of S1s so undertook a two year fight,
which we eventually won , when the French authorities agreed that they had misunderstood the regulations.
Meanwhile the Overseas Dept of the NHS discovered that if they changed the appendix of the EU Regulations to which they had signed up, it would cost them less money.
Ian Duncan Smith turned this into a political gain for the Tories but it involved removing the six month waiting period for UK returnees gaining access to the NHS and also immediate NHS access to all holders of S1s.
Very complicated, but worth doing.
That seems to be the nub of it. Which I find shocking. It must be such small sums of money. Surely the number of non-resident pensioners who rock up in the UK and need health care (other than emergency stuff which is always available) is tiny?
Let is hope that amongst all those settling in the EU from now on there is another Jane Williamson who is prepared to take on the fight. It is completely barking that the UK will pay for your healthcare here, but not in the UK!
I know I am setting myself up to be shot at for what I am about to say but here goes!
So from 1st January 2021 the UK is now a free spirit go it alone country who answers to no one. Each UK resident has the right to free NHS service in the country where they live ie. the UK. If that resident decides to move to a country within the EU then if an inactive they know that they need to take out private health insurance until they can get into the health system of that country and presumably are still able to receive NHS treatment should they visit the UK as they have not relinquished that right.
When that inactive reaches retirement age and applies for an S1 with it comes the right for healthcare funded by the NHS but now that the UK is an independent why should it fund health for the holder in more than one country?
Seems to me that this future S1 holder will have funded healthcare by the UK in the EU country they choose to reside and I see no reason for them to expect any more than their fellow countrymen who chooses to stay in the UK but be grateful that thier country of birth is prepared to transfer their health service account to another country.
It’s the new normal and another gift of Brexit.
Looking at it from another perspective, you are born in the UK, you spend all your working life paying taxes a lot of which will pay for your NHS cover for the rest of your life and it will be a considerable amount.
You retire and want to live out your life in a different country and the UK says fine we will pay for your health care in that country and back in the UK if you happen to come back here to see your relations and get ill after all you paid into the tax system all your working life.
Then brexit happens, Boris says fine even though you have decided foolishly to heaven knows why to have left dear old blighty and move to one of the enemies countries, because it would look bad and he is such a compassionate human being, he will allow his goverment to continue to pay for your healthcare in that country even though he cannot understand anyone wanting to leave dear old blighty.
It still annoys him though so he decides if you come back to the country of your birth where you paid into the system all your working life and get ill, he will through his governments decision not pay for your treatment, basically out of spite because if you hadn’t come back and had gotten ill in the country you now live in they would pay for your treatment anyway.
Petty, costs them in the scheme of things very little anyway, but in his mind it serves you right for leaving dear old blighty.
But you have your CEAM health card that covers your treatment if you are visiting the UK and if you decide to return to the UK to live then your access to the NHS is reinstated as you are a uk national.
Or your travel insurance covers your needs whilst visiting.
As I say, it’s the new normal.
After the last few years of saying that foriegners are fleecing the NHS they can use this lie,if you like , to justify anything that will be seen as standing up “health tourism”
Actually, you don’t have a CEAM card in the circumstances that Colin has outlined. If you are retired and all your payments towards state healthcare were in the UK and you have an S1 on that basis, never having worked in France, then you are not entitled to a CEAM as you have made no contributions here. Of course if you have worked here and contributed your cotisation sociale, you can have a CEAM.
I agree but an S1 would have thier GHIC ( or whatever the card is now called that is being issued under withdrawal agreement ) so does that not cover a visit to the NHS?
Also the .gov info confirms that those already covered by withdrawal agreement can access NHS.
It’s all about what UK nationals can expect in the future and doesn’t affect what rights you have already had.
Future S1 applicants will have to make a judgement based on new rules which are immaterial to what they have been.
Yes - there is no problem for people here before 31/12/2020 as actually it’s theirS1 that gives them access to NHS care in the UK not their EHIC card, to which they are still entitled, for overseas travel.
I think what the previous posters were pointing out is that post 31/12/2020 arrivals here, although entitled to an S1 for their ongoing health care in France, are not entitled to any form of cover for the UK. As far as I understand, the EHIC replacement card (GHIC???) does not cover any form of care in the UK as it’s designed for overseas travel, as was the EHIC, but of course I’m open to correction here…
Of course, the UK government are also making a saving on the health costs of S1 holders as they only pay 70% of our health costs and we need to make up the rest via a Mutuelle.
Of course, they would have to pay 100% of our costs if we could ever get off the waiting list.
In my previous battle I was helped considerably by Sir Graham Watson, who immediately recognised the problem, whilst the British embassy refused to help as they said that they did not get involved in individual cases, which, of course, it wasn’t.
Now, of course, we have no MEP’s and the Overseas Dept of the NHS seems to have been reformed and you cannot as much access as before.
I was highlighting the case of those of us who don’t have s1 because we work here and France is our health provider. Will the uk recognise our ehic (which are still valide as we’re french in the french system)
I would think so, especially as you are now a French citizen!
An S1 holder does not have a CEAM card. We have a GHIC which does not cover the UK.
And to me the issue is that you are the same person whether you are in France or the UK…so what is the difference if the UK pays for your course of antibiotics (eg) in France or in the UK. Unless you have the ability to split yourself in two and go to a doctor in UK and France at the same moment for the same illness you are only ever receiving one treatment. It is petty.
I have an S1 but the new EHIC - E not the GHIC card. That’s what I was told to apply for by the government .
I must look at it again…that’s what I have and I thought there was a G on it, but maybe not… it’s a something HIC… Still doesn’t cover the UK tho’.
Of course, UK travellers should still take our Health Insurance to cover them on their trip… as they won’t get “free” treatment in France… just the same financial level as any French Resident.
