Under the change in the rules, which is due to take effect on September 30, anyone under British retirement age and not working will lose their right to French state healthcare once they have lived in the country for two years. Those over retirement age are unaffected. About 6,000 Britons a year will be hit and potentially as many as 100,000 early retirees who have lived in France for more than two years.
Now I wonder what healthcare provision we have for the 250,000 French passport holders who live in the UK. Complete and all encompassing, I suspect. I think a bit of gunboat diplomacy from Mr Miliband is called for, don't you? Or perhaps we should deploy Alan Johnson. He's far less diplomatic.
"Or perhaps we should deploy Alan Johnson. He's far less diplomatic."
ReplyDeleteIsn't he the one who caved into the public sector unions over pension ages? If so, he won't stand a chance against the French!
Thought that wonderful EU had rules on this - oh sorry its France, normal regulations don't apply....
ReplyDeleteHo, ho! All those ex-pats who love to tell us that healthcare in France is far superior to the NHS.
ReplyDeleteOuef sur les visages, me pense?
Serves them right for living in that nasty country !!!
ReplyDeleteThe socialists can't even withdraw "benefits" aka "free money" "asylum seekers" (seeking asylum from low-paying jobs in the third world) and they can't even withdraw NHS free services from Pakistanis whose generations of incestuous first-cousin marriages produce 31% of recessive gene disorders in Britain. (Telegraph; didn't save the link.)
ReplyDeleteHow on earth would they get up the nerve to refuse health care to the French who, for all their poncey behaviour over eating ortolans, are somewhat more doughty when push comes to shove?
wonderful EU! lets invade normandy
ReplyDeleteThe socialists can't even withdraw "benefits" aka "free money" "asylum seekers" (seeking asylum from low-paying jobs in the third world) and they can't even withdraw NHS free services from Pakistanis whose generations of incestuous first-cousin marriages produce 31% of recessive gene disorders in Britain. (Telegraph; didn't save the link.)
ReplyDeleteHow on earth would they get up the nerve to refuse health care to the French who, for all their poncey behaviour over eating ortolans, are somewhat more doughty when push comes to shove?
Is this illegal under EU treaties ?
ReplyDeleteIts only English people who can be legally discriminated against - and then only in Scotland where they're children may not benefit from the taxes their parents pay to the Scottish Chancellor who then sends it up North to his fellow Scots to funds the great socialist theme park they have up there.
At least its not just me who knows what an ortolan is.
ReplyDeleteLook, if you want to - go and live in France, please do so, but don't go there and whinge about them.
It's like bloody Yasmin Misery Guts Brown who came over here as a refugee and who now spends every moment slagging us off.
As for the Frogs who live here, they have clearly made the right decision. Certain of them make the dreary gastronomic vistas of Scotland a much more palatable experience.
We are in the EU, a clever device designed to keep French Farmers in some kind of rural idyll, and I don't want to get started on that one.
I'm so sorry about the grotesque and annoying double posting. It kept giving me the cue to key in a new set of letters - although I thought four times was excessive but it never said my comment had been received.
ReplyDeleteMan in A Shed - don't start confusing it with our national issues. This will only serve their purpose, as in "Well, the French ...". Fight British issues in Britain or you cede our national authority. You can fight Gordon Brown on our own territory - the Union.
the French move is legal under EU - its all about insurance - don't pay for it don't get it.
ReplyDeleteDoes any mainstream UK politician have the guts to apply the idea of insurance to the NHS? - "if you haven't paid any tax/NI in this country, ever, you can F off - its the National Health Service not the International Health service".
Now that WOULD be a shift to the right.
Tone
ReplyDelete"international health service"
On the UK visa stamp it is stated-
NO RECOURSE TO PUBLIC FUNDS
This includes the NHS.
Foreign students can have treatment from the NHS after they have lived in the UK for six months.Although this used to be subject to certain restrictions.
British people who live Mexico and other similar countries are NOT entitled to NHS treatment.
(Unless they are paying Class 2 NI contibutions)
By the way if you are on a waiting list affordable medical treatment(of international standards)is available in Thailand.
Its almost comical the way that all the world can have free healthcare in the UK no questions asked! Just look at all the Nigerians and Pakistanis who come over on "holiday", many 9months pregnant and straight to the nearest NHS hospital for free treatment! And before any NULAB trolls say it doesnt happen, the GMC has been complaining about it for years! The NHS hospitals cant even refuse the most expensive treatments and all the time the native British get pushed down the queue!
ReplyDeleteThe NHS should be called the WHS(world health service) and before anyone calls me racist, has anyone had a loved one die on a waiting list because all the places were filled up with non residents? I estimate that we subsidise the Pakistani healthcare system alone to the tune of a couple of billion pounds a year!
You have to admire the French, in a way. They just make their own rules. If, for example, the EU issues a directive which they don't agree with, they just ignore it.
ReplyDeleteEU Regs might be a little less burdensome if we could learn to do the same, instead of gold-plating everything that comes out of Brussels.
Hah! We’re all used to this behaviour from other European nations, whether or not they are in the EU! Many years ago when I moved to Austria for my first tour of duty, I was informed by the authorities that I would have to take a driving test after one year’s residence. The same didn’t apply to Austrians living in the UK, who could merely exchange their licence for a British one simply by post from the DLLC in Cardiff. This had been a bone of contention for many years, but diplomatic representation by the British was met with a bureaucratic brick wall!
ReplyDeleteAt the time we had a Conservative administration in the UK and legislation was quietly introduced in which Austrians would also be required to take a driving test from January 1st. Apparently the Austrian ambassador was attending a New Year celebration in London with his limousine parked outside of the address. When he came to leave the police were waiting to tell him the good news that his licence was not valid in the UK and that most of the embassy staff would no longer be able to drive in the UK until they had passed a UK driving test.
By January 3rd reciprocal arrangements had been hastily arranged when an exchange of licence was all that was required. It should be interesting to see how our NuLab friends react to the French in this current matter, but don’t hold your breath!
Should the UK try to do something like this you can be absolutely certain there will be several publicly funded British Human Rights lawyers only too ready to ensure that we can't deprive EU nationals of free healthcare and will only to willing to take the UK government to the European Court of Human Rights to prove it !
ReplyDeleteC'est la Vie !
All persons who are "ordinarily resident" in Great Britain are entitled to treatment for free under the NHS - NHS Act 1977, s121 - so yes, people who live here are entitled to treatment in the NHS whether they contribute or not.
ReplyDeletetone made: Now that WOULD be a shift to the right.
ReplyDeleteNo it would not, it would be a shift towards common sense and Libertarianism!
I think the big difference between the two groups is that most of the 202,000 British passport holders living in France are retired, whereas the vast majority of the 250,00 French passport holders living in the UK are working full time and paying national insurance and income tax.
ReplyDeleteWhy should people who live in France and don't work but are below the retirement age get free health cover? All this is doing is saying that the Brits in France should be treated the same way as the French.
ReplyDeleteThose expats will just have to pay to join a mutuel like the French do.
I think its a great idea and we should do the same over here. We are some of the biggest mugs in the world
ReplyDeleteAardvark got it in one, why should the French Taxpayer fund EARLY English retirees under the age of 65 who have not paid into the system that produces Healthcare on demand in clean well run hospitals. Just because the NHS cannot organise itself without muliple infections and waiting lists and health tourists, there is no need to wave the flag on this one.
ReplyDeleteHang on - is that even legal? Surely EHIC, the successor to E111, means that France has to give cover?
ReplyDeleteA-ha! It turns out that the EHIC only covers travellers, not people living permanently in the country. However, as your passport isn't stamped on the way into France, people could tell a little white lie about their place of residence.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the UK Government should start charging French drivers who use British motorways...
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, "let's invade Normandy"!?!
ReplyDeleteLet's have it back, along with the rest of Brittany and Calais!