The government IS stopping them, and the UK doctors aren't getting in their way--in fact, many are eager to take on a cadre of private patients and raise money from "paying" customers.
And pretty soon, anyone getting free care is gonna need a UK address, too.
Sure, every country has people who don't pay taxes, but they are OUTLIERS. Most of them, the ones who aren't severely disabled and have been their entire lives, have paid into the system at some point in time and are vested in the scheme. Most countries with even marginal health care infrastructures take care of the "least of the brethren." Some do it better than others, but destitute people are cared for in most circumstances. They aren't the majority of the patients, though and they are not to whom I am referring.
That is a popular fiction in the UK, that everyone gets treated if they wind up at the hospital, and no one gets a bill, but that is not true--hasn't been for many years, now. Sure, have a heart attack in Picadilly and they'll take care of you, but don't even think about flying in to get that mole removed, or have your pesky gall bladder taken out--that is not happening.
And people are PAYING to get care, and more will be in future, too: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/the-truth-about-health-tourism-twice-as-many-foreign--visitors-pay-to-use-nhs-as-exploit-free-healthcare-in-britain-8902520.html
New research that turns the high-profile debate on its head, has found that 18 NHS trusts made a total income of £42m in 2010-11 from foreign paying patients
The study also highlights the massive potential for NHS trusts to make money from foreign paying patients, who are willing to spend large sums on care at some of the health service’s internationally renowned hospitals.
In total, 52,000 people who entered the UK in 2010 declared that the main purpose of their visit was to seek healthcare. Researchers said it was highly unlikely that any of them would be seeking to exploit the NHS for free care because it would be too easy to track them. While some will have been visiting for treatment in the private sector, a large number will have visited NHS hospitals that were willing to charge for certain procedures.
Dr Johanna Hanefeld, lecturer in health systems economics at LSHTM, said that as a result it was likely that the number of foreign patients paying for NHS care is double the number coming to the UK seeking free healthcare – a group estimated to number between 5,000 and 20,000 by government-commissioned research published earlier this week. The new research also found that, overall, the UK is a “net exporter” of patients, with 63,000 travelling abroad for treatment in 2010.
Researchers submitted Freedom of Information requests to 28 NHS foundation trust hospitals. Among the 18 trusts which responded was Great Ormond Street children’s hospital, which took an income of over £20m from 656 patients.
The potential for foreign patients to pay for care at NHS hospitals is set to increase. Under the Government’s health reforms, NHS trusts can now raise up to 49 per cent of funds through non-NHS work – a huge increase on the 2 per cent cap set by the previous government.
And there IS a "crackdown" underway--even UK citizen - EXPATS are going to be required to pay for NHS care starting next April:
Expatriate Britons have been caught up in a major crackdown on ' health tourists' announced by the Government yesterday.
Under new restrictions, people who fly to Britain to exploit the NHS will be denied free care. The ban preventing visitors and failed asylum seekers from milking the system is likely to come into force by next April.
Health Minister John Hutton warned that health tourism was a 'significant' problem and swift action was needed to safeguard the NHS for taxpayers.
The new rules may lead to all patients being asked for proof of residence, such as a passport or electricity bill.
However, pensioners from the UK who live abroad for more than half the year will be denied free treatment.
No matter how much they have paid in tax and National Insurance over the years, such expatriates will now have to pay for NHS care back in Britain.
Only treatment for emergencies - such as heart attacks, accidents or sudden illness - will still be free.
The move will hit thousands who have retired to the Spanish costas, France or other European countries.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-204961/UK-expats-fall-victim-health-tourism.html#ixzz2mZyzzB6x
The system IS about the money, both making it and trying to hold in costs. It is about prioritizing the "taxpayer"--those who have or are paying into the system. There is a paradigm shift that has been happening for many years in health care, not just in USA, but all over the world--and UK as well. Everyone gets care, but not always the cutting edge treatments, and there is a queue. Remember that "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" film? One of the characters--a racist pensioner-- goes to India for her new hip.
Medical tourism is happening all over the world--South America for plastic surgery, Brazil for dentists, India for hips, knees, and bypasses. Spend a few moments researching the concept on the internet--you'll be very surprised.
It's one of the reasons that parents raise money in UK with charity schemes (forty thousand pounds, some of them) to send their children with cerebral palsy to St. Louis, to the Children's Hospital there, to get an operation that used to not be available at all in UK, but is now "marginally" available to some--but not all-- children who need it (the doctor who does this operation trained the few doctors in UK who do the procedure). In very recent years, well over a hundred kids have left UK to get this operation. UK guidance discourages the procedure (thousands have had it, it's a frigging MIRACLE for children with debilitating spacticity) , and while they claim they have been doing it at 2 UK hospitals since 1988, they were using an old, outdated method that involved a lot of spinal compromise, had high rates of infection, and they were only doing two or three a year. See:
http://www.scope.org.uk/help-and-information/therapies/selective-dorsal-rhizotomy
http://www.stlouischildrens.org/health-care-professionals/publications/doctors-digest/septemberoctober-2010/park-performs-2000th-sel
http://www.support4sdr.org/SDRHOP.html
Dr Park has operated on people from 48 different countries and a number of those countries have trained or are training surgeons to offer this procedure. Indeed, SDR is currently performed in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada and Mexico. As of 30 March 2012, 145 people from the United Kingdom have been operated on in St Louis—120 from England, 18 from Scotland and 7 from Wales.
I lived in UK for several years, most recently in the 90s for just over two years--I've been back more recently, though, for visits--I can't say I'm up on every single thing that has been happening, but as I have friends with whom I keep in touch regularly, I remain "situationally aware."
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