NHS hospitals will charge foreign patients who are not eligible for free, non-emergency treatment up front from April, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will announce today. It’s a controversial step, but one likely to go down well with voters angry at people from abroad using NHS services without paying. The move is designed as a way of finally meeting a target for hospitals to recoup some £500m from overseas patients – something hospitals have, until now, fallen well short of doing (just £289m was collected in 2015/16). It’s a step which, unsurprisingly, has been greeted with praise in this morning’s newspaper editorials. The Sun says if this new change of rules means ‘less time chasing foreign freeloaders for payment and more time treating those entitled to free care it should be welcomed’. The paper says the plight of those being treated in NHS hospitals isn’t helped by those who refuse to foot the bill for treatment they’re not entitled to. But be warned – it’s time to ‘prepare the outrage bus’: ‘Left-wing campaigners and hand-wringing doctors’ will no doubt go on the attack, says the Sun. Whatever they might say, it’s clear this is a good step, the paper concludes.
The Times agrees, saying it’s only fair that people should be charged up front if they’re not eligible for free healthcare. ‘Care is not costless,’ the paper says – and while Britain is ‘an outward-looking country’ it shouldn’t mean that foreign patients can get access to healthcare funded by British taxpayers. While today’s announcement has made the headlines, the Times goes on to say that Hunt’s bid to get back £500m a year is ‘scarcely ambitious though. But while the sums of money are relatively small in the scheme of the NHS’s £116bn budget, it’s the principle that counts. After all, ‘recovering the costs of treating overseas patients is a fair way’ of doing things, the Times concludes.
The freeloading by foreign patients is evidence of the NHS at its worst for the Daily Telegraph, which says that the failure to chase up those who are not entitled to free healthcare is evidence of the NHS’s inefficiency. Today’s announcement is a welcome one, then, but the paper is sceptical of the ambitions behind it. After all, up until now hospitals have struggled to ensure they are paid back – will anything be different under the new rules? The Daily Telegraph suggests that Hunt’s aim to claw back £500m is ‘somewhat ambitious’ ‘in view of past failures’. Instead of arguing about relatively small sums of money, the Telegraph urges a different approach: it’s time for a rethink, the paper argues. ‘If we want a nationally available system of health and social care then it has to be paid for,’ the paper concludes. Whether it’s GP charges, or social insurance systems, something must be done to save the NHS, the Telegraph says.
Meanwhile, the Daily Mail makes this week’s Parliament debates over the Government’s Brexit White Paper its talking point this morning. After last week’s vote in the Commons – when MPs backed the Government triggering Article 50 – it would be ‘easy to think the battle in Parliament over leaving the European Union is over,’ says the paper. But don’t be fooled: ‘hardcore Remainers’ are still ‘hellbent on blocking Brexit’. MPs are also keen to try and water down the bill by tabling amendments – a strategy that the Mail takes a characteristically hardline on. ‘Any vote against the Bill is a vote against the referendum result, and to frustrate the will of the people,’ the paper says.
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