In The Event Of Major Illness

[Roamin]

QUOTE(sleepyjohn @ 2006-09-08 02:31:39)

QUOTE(Roamin @ 2006-09-07 20:17:06)

So now we are at B8,231,046 or about US$211,000.

Go get health insurance! END QUOTE BY ROAMIN

START QUOE BY SLEEPYJOHN

Thanx to the those of you who gave health costs!

Well Roamin I'm really sorry for your problem and hope you are doing OK there and wish you all the best.

You are right....8 or 10 million would be a lump that would change things a lot. In fact it would seem to be not coverable by the 27,000 baht premium that was kindly mentioned. My very rough guess is it would not require ten times the premium for getting a million, because a ten million event is not equally likely to happen, but maybe say three times as much? Say best part of 100,000 baht premium? Any input on that?

Two things come to mind.

In the event of something major I personally could go back to the UK and get treated for free, thereby getting back some of the huge amount of purchase tax I paid for booze fags and petrol whilst getting nothing back for decades. I actually believe they are stopping/have stopped this, but my experience of the National Health is they just want everyone to get treated. Any input here?

I'd also ask Roamin if you would have perhaps shopped around a bit for better value treatment than the Bumrungrad if you hadn't been insured. I can't imagine it being anything like that here in CM. What is the expensive bit, is it because the drugs are coming from the US? That seems a huge amount for medication.

In any case again all the best.

I am not proposing this, but just pondering whether it might be worthwhile to, well, take a chance if the alternative is not making ends meet to do what one would like. I think death's overrated. Having said that the times I have faced it I thought somewhat differently. END QUOTE BY SLEEPYJOHN

On 9 September I (Roamin) wrote on another thread that medical expenses for chemotherapy at Bumrungrad Hospital over past 2 years has cost me B8,231,046 or about US$211,000.

Sleepyjohn has replied that in the event of a major health problem he would go back to the UK and be treated free by NHS and asked for input. What do others know/think about NHS treating expat UK passport holders?

[Mr Jones]

EU passport holders will be treated free in the UK.

None EU pasport holders May be asked to pay if they are recent arrivals in the UK

i.e. medical tourists.

[H2oDunc]

EU passport holders will be treated free in the UK.

None EU pasport holders May be asked to pay if they are recent arrivals in the UK

i.e. medical tourists.

Youre having a laugh I think. In this country you only have to turn up and you will be treated. To turn you away would be against your human rights so they just treat you. People fall off the plane get to hospital and then have open heart surgery etc jumping the queue of people who have lived here all their lives paying taxes. But as said earlier since the introduction of the European human rights act you can get anything. Anybody can turn up here and be given housing, food, clothes, money etc. Apart from your Thai wife who isnt going to cost the gov or anybody anything but thats a different matter. We cant even deport the hijackers who hijacked the plane from Afghanistan years ago as it would be against their human rights to send them back to a war zone.So we have to pay to house, feed, clothe them etc as we cant make them work So I wouldnt worry about having to pay. Just get to the UK and its happy time.

Rant over, Cheers Dunc

[briley]

Can't agree with H2oDunc having had problems with medical treatment in the UK even when fully entitled to it.

But for the record everyone visiting the UK will get freee emergancy treatment.

If you are in Roamin's position and are a non-resident, and by NHS rules that is out of the UK for any reason for 6 months or more then you do NOT get treatment free. Unless you return to the UK to take up residence in which case you can get free treatment from the day you arrive back in the UK.

So the answer is you can live in Thailand and if you get a major illness return to the UK, declare you are going to stay there so you become resident again and get free NHS treatment.

[sleepyjohn]

Can't agree with H2oDunc having had problems with medical treatment in the UK even when fully entitled to it.

But for the record everyone visiting the UK will get freee emergancy treatment.

If you are in Roamin's position and are a non-resident, and by NHS rules that is out of the UK for any reason for 6 months or more then you do NOT get treatment free. Unless you return to the UK to take up residence in which case you can get free treatment from the day you arrive back in the UK.

So the answer is you can live in Thailand and if you get a major illness return to the UK, declare you are going to stay there so you become resident again and get free NHS treatment.

I'm glad to hear this Briley. Despite the understandable rant by H2O it seems unfair that one should pay a lot of tax earlier in life then abroad at a later stage when one is much more likely to need a bit of payback be excluded. This is reminding of the pension thing where the state pension is not adjusted for inflation after you leave the country. The only excuse I can see for this is that the money one would spend is less likely to go back into the UK economy.....but on balance that doesn't seem a reasonable justification. The UK should be thrilled that one is going to support oneself through most health issue at no cost to them and forgo a lot of possible benefits by being abroad, and do the right thing.

[briley]

Despite what a lot of people think it is difficult for non-EU nationals to get NHS treatment, Social payments, housing etc in the UK.

Within the EU everything is recipricol (spelling?). Poles get UK NHS treatment, including paying prescription charges whist if a Brit goes to Poland they get the Polish equivalent of the NHS. Seems fair to me.

However the court have interpreted the Human Rights Act in some very strange ways .................................

[scotsman]

If you have a address in the uk for your post and you are paying income tax in the uk then you will be able to get NHS treatment as you are not a non - resident even if you are out of the country for 6 months or more. Its only for people who dont pay tax or national insurance. I found out this when I tryed to pay my national insurance by direct debit the forms from the national insurance office asks you the questions to find out if you are a non - resident. The questions where if you have a uk address and you pay income tax in the uk then you are not a non-resident. I have never been turned away from having NHS treatment when I go back to the uk.

[briley]

Sorry Scotsman but I am partially wrong, but also right.

Have spent some time on the NHS site and find on this page

http://www.dh.gov.uk/PolicyAndGuidance/Int...&chk=mJFm70

That anyone who "anyone who spends more than 3 months living outside the UK is no longer automatically entitled to free NHS hospital treatment in England" (What about Scotland and Wales???)

Later on the same page it says "If you go anywhere abroad for more than three months, either for a one-off extended holiday for a few months or to live permanently for several years, but then return to the UK to take up permanent residence here again, then you will be entitled to receive free NHS hospital treatment from the day you return."

This is what I always thought but then another page

http://www.dh.gov.uk/PolicyAndGuidance/Int...&chk=uhB/w0

It starts to refer to a House of Lords ruling that anyone who is "Ordinary Resident" is entitled to treatment and this is undefined!

Finally another page (can't find it now) says that if you have been resident and working for 10 years in the UK and not working for more than 5 years outside the UK then you get free treatment.

I think the rules are so complex that any Brit who presents themselves for treatment will get it.

[scotsman]

Yes I agree that the rules are not all black & white and that the rules in scotland may differ from the rest of the uk. I think if they dont give you NHS treatment when you are paying all your taxes & nat Ins then they could be in for a whole load of trouble in a court of law as it would be a breach of my human rights. I dont pay income tax on my company pension for nothing so I will just keep going back to the NHS for my treatment if needed and I will wait and see if any doctor or hospitial will refuse me.