to ask you all to please help me out here. My mother is insisting this is true ...

[fluffyraggies]

..... that if you get hospital treatment as a result of a traffic accident you have to PAY for it. And if you cant pay for it you have have to claim off your car insurance.

Ay ???????

I have never in all my days heard this ?!?!? I was and when she said it.

I've been driving for years and have always sorted my own car insurance and have never ever come across this in any of the paper work. She doesn't drive and never has. But she is adamant she's correct on this.

Am i being really thick here?

[VivaLeBeaver]

Yes, I got billed or rather my insurance company did after a car accident. Definetly for hospital treatment as I never had an ambulance. I had to fill out various forms. In the uk and I'm a uk national.

[differentnameforthis]

My sister's friend was badly injured as a result a car accident. She didn't pay for her treatment nor did she claim on the insurance.

[differentnameforthis]

Blimey, 20 pounds for an ambulance! We have to pay $600 for an ambulance, whether you need it or not. We have ambulance insurance here & if you don't have it, you do get charged!

[ibizagirl]

Mum used to ride a moped for work. She got knocked off by a young kid in a car and someone called an ambulance. Mum got a bill for it. I thought mum was joking when she said she had to pay.

[VivaLeBeaver]

I had to pay £25 for an ambulance 19 years ago when a little girl ran into the side of my car.

[scaevola]

NHS.has always been able to recover a contribution to costs from insurers (which us why it is only vehicle incidents, as that is the only area where by law one must be insured).

[poppy283]

If the NHS sent me a bill for any of these things I'd tell them to shove it up their collective arse!

[Longdistance]

No. The NHS is free. No charge.

I live in Oz, and it's not free. You could be dying, and still get some twat on your case 'can I have your Medicare card please?'

[youarewinning]

sunflowers I'm sorry to hear you experienced that.

My friend and her DH were invvef in a car accident - we only them involved but she rolled the car and they were cut out. They were billed for ambulance and treatment - including the treatment her DH received for his broken neck.
It went through the insurance but my friend does know that because the hospital refused to believe her DH neck in jury was anything other than sore neck and ordered him to get to his wife's bedside as she was PG with a few fractures the Insurance company refused to pay!!!! The hospital tried to charge for the emergency operation he had to put metal vertebrae in- however it was only after 10 days when he returned complaining of still being in agony and they x rayed him and discovered the break and exposed spinal cord.

My friend was advised to sue the hospital but decided not to because they hadn't been able to recover costs and she felt it wasn't in anyone's best interests.

[gallicgirl]

Aren't these all services we supposedly pay for through tax and NI? Why on earth are we also paying through our car insurance?

[VivaLeBeaver]

If you dont pay an ambulance bill the police told me you can be prosecuted under the road traffic act.

[Iheartpasties]

I had never heard of this!!! wow, every day is a school day.

[kerrygrey]

Way back in the Stone Age I worked for the local Regional Hospital Board. Much of my work was collecting this ETF (Emergency Treatment Fee). Much explaining to people that it wasn't for the ambulance, it wasn't on the NHS, and their car insurance should cover it. If it wasn't paid we always took it to the County Court (now the Small Claims Court) to recover the debt. Sometimes even the court Registrar needed the Act explaining. I forget which section, subsection etc of the RTA it was, but it WAS there.

[NUFC69]

Your mum is absolutely right (or she was when my son was small). DS was about four at the time and fell off his bike on the pavement outside our house. We took him to the nearest A & E, which was Ascot. A few weeks later we received a bill from them for his Road Traffic Accident. I wrote back and said that a four year old falling off his bike on the pavement was scarcely a RTA and heard no more from them. I have absolutely no problem with the NHS chasing up people after RTAs - our health care is not free, the tax payers cough up the money to fund it - it needs any help it can get!

[fluffyraggies]

Well - new day and i'm still

Thanks for everyone's responses. This is news to loads of us then.

I am more shocked that i knew nothing about this, than shocked about the fact that our car insurances have been paying for ambulances and medical treatment all these years!

I understand that car travel is really the only universally insured activity - and therefore the NHS claims against it. I suppose.

But i'm still thinking - really!?

I guess more often than not this all just gets dealt with between the NHS dept. and our insurers and we don't see it happening. This must be such a horrible shock for people when they do receive a bill in the post :(

[missymoomoomee]

I was in a car accident 14 years ago and the driver got a bill for himself, me and the other passenger. There was no ambulance so it was for being seen in a&e I think it was £26 per person.

[HardHittingLeafletCampaign]

I wonder if I can claim back the NHS portion of the taxi pay if I don't use it. Hmmm, no?

[HardHittingLeafletCampaign]

tax I pay

[clam]

LeafletCampaign Along with those people with kids in private schools claiming back what they don't use for education?