It’s a factor, but some Brits work and pay into the French system (IIRC at least 50k Brits in France are working).
It diesn’t change the overall argument that the figures do not show what they purport to show.
The NHS estimate is £340 million spent on care for EU nationals of which about £240 million should be recoverable (compared with less than £50 million which is actually recovered).
Err, excuse me but I’m on an s1 at 66 years old and my healthcare in france is paid for by my lifetimes National Insurance payments not by UK taxpayers!! As you seem to be implying.
In reality it does not work like that.
In practice, this years healthcare and pension bill is paid for with this years tax intake, not historic payments.
Your entitlement is funded by your lifetime’s payments, as Paul says the money comes from the exchequer.
Not only are you splitting hairs but it’s insulting too.
No insult, it’s a fact. I’m in the same position as you.
Hello Ley…
You’ve lost me … who do you think is insulting you ??? 
No more so than say, if you don’t have children, you can get a rebate for the proportion of tax which relates to education!
C’mon… get a grip! Your lifetime NI Contributions are just that… contributions to the exchequer - the total NHS bill is far in excess of what is recovered in this way and somewhat like an insurance policy.
Nothing John Mann could or would do is ever likely to embarrass any government. He does though frequently embarrass the Labour Party and Labour voters. Fortunately I moved out of his constituency fifty years ago.
Lol, to the perdons who implied my healthcare us being paid for by UK tax payers rather than my 40 odd years of NI payments. He was splitting hairs by saying it and I’m fed of as a pensioner being made to feel like a sponger.
Well, I’m a pensioner (so is OH) and have not noticed anyone trying to make either of us feel like a sponger… whether they be out in the big wide world… or here on our Forum…
Perhaps you have had an unfortunate experience in the past… whatever… let’s move on… 
Name names 
I wasn’t implying that your state pension is paid for by current tax revenue I was stating it. It is not “splitting hairs” either.
Your 40-odd years of NI was made at a time when prices (and importantly in this case) wages were much lower, I think you would be very disappointed to now “get back what you paid in” against modern prices.
This does not mean you are a sponger - you paid the pensions and healthcare bills of those in receipt of these benefits at the time and it is now your turn to be supported by current taxpayers which you entirely deserve.
As Stella says, time to move the conversation on.
Snap David. My private pensions also went to bail out the banks. And now thanks to the idiot brexiters what’s left doesn’t make for a comfortable retirement. But at least i can grow a few veggies 
so all’s not lost.
That’s a very good way of explaning it, Graham), we pay a regular fixed ‘premium’ on a state-operated ‘health-care policy’ which gives us protection against the ‘cost’ of health-care services. A similar system operates to provide welfare benefits and a retirement pension for elderly people, on the basis of universal enrolment.
Everyone who works pays into the ‘insurance scheme’ for themselves and their family, with a bit extra to cover people who can’t work and earn a wage (for no fault of their own).
Some lucky people don’t need much or even any healthcare, some need a lot, but everyone gets the lifelong assurance that their needs will be met by the scheme.
_Your entitlement is not in any measurable way linked to how much you’ve paid in ‘premiums’ _; like all other insurance policies, you’re covered from the day you enrol, or are born into a family which is covered, which is everyone. No-one ‘sponges" off the scheme, because everyone is covered whether they can contribute or not, and whether they’ ve contributed or not. Wisely, the government has long realised that the cost of the service far exceeds the income from insurance premiums paid in, so the sceme is generously funded/‘topped up’ from general taxation.
All one needs to do is enrol in the system, and anyone who works legally is automatically enrolled by his/her employer.
That’s my understanding of how it works. I count myself very lucky, having made very few claims on my ‘insurance policy’ over the 80 yrars of my life, though there’s still a fair chance I will in the future.c
Stella was merely trying to calm the situation down and get everyone to ‘move on’ - that is all!
And I was not trying in any way to be “nasty” (as I suspect that it was my comment that Ley was upset by).