NHS bill for £1000

[ladle4455]

My dad, 80, came for a visit from overseas from overseas for three months. He is fit and healthy but its impossible to find health insurance at his age. Anyway, there was a health emergency and we went to A&E. Waited for 7 hours but after 15 minutes of diagnostic tests (x ray etc but no medicines) was told there was no problem. was hugely relieved. I thought there was no charge as it was an emergency but have now been sent a bill for £1000. Apparently the charge for overseas patients is 150% (there times the actual cost) and the test was done by another department not A&E. Any advise? I have to sell my car to be able to pay as I don't want dad to have a debt over him.

@Ballsbaill me neither.

I may be mistaken, but I would have thought the insurance provider would have to be from his country of residence. On the basis that cover would be to either look after him or repatriate him if necessary.

Are you willing to name the country? If not then I'm not sure any mn suggestions will help.

(Sorry for misjudging that you wouldn't be back).

Yes she did, and....?
This thread isn't about Diane Abbot, and even though I disagree with what she said, it's a lot less unpleasant than the literally tens of thousands of Daily Mail readers agreeing with comments that say the woman shouldn't have been treated...to which the logical extension is that the woman and her babies WOULD DIE.

The Nigerian national should not have been allowed to travel into the uk without health insurance. Airlines should be made to guarantee medical expenses for anyone they fly into the country (meaning they would require evidence of travel insurance before flying them).

But she did come here, so just to clarify, so I'm curious which of the two outcomes you think should have happened:

1. Tough shit you health tourist cheat- no treatment for you- if your babies die that's not the UK's problem
2. We are a civilised country and will treat you and your babies.

That's not a terrible idea re health insurance, and airlines checking. But it's a lot of red tape and you'd have to do a cost benefit analysis to see if the increase in costs of travelling to the UK would deter tourists, and how much extra airline costs would add to the cost of plane tickets for all of us.

Also lots of people DIE due to lack of health care. Because resources aren’t available or medicines that are simply too costly. In the UK as individuals we are mostly isolated from the actual cost of medical care but the reality is we can’t pay for everything. For example, a recent Cystic Fibrosis drug was found to prolong sufferers lives by decades. Would you prescribe it? It would cost £1.6 billion - 1% of the whole NHS budget - every year to treat the 10,000 people with cystic fibrosis. A figure that would potentially double due to the drugs effectiveness. Not spending the money condemns them to die, spending 1 to 2% of the budget on 0.015% of the population means it is not available for live saving treatment for others.

Glad your Dad is better but he took a stupid risk not buying health insurance, now he has to pay the cost.

@ladle4455 I think your Dad will struggle to get travel insurance now he is already away and has received treatment. I would be very wary of travelling to USA without insurance. If you think the bill from the NHS is high any bill from an American hospital will be huge.

Without knowing where he has travelled from it would be really difficult to try and recommend an insurer.

Yes the airlines have a lot to answer for

Haven't looked at the link

Are they meant to let heavily pregnant women fly in the first place if this was the case

Look at Money Saving expert website for ideas of insurance companies.

It would require a specialist insurer, and would likely cost more than £1000.

Incidentally, half of all personal bankruptcies in America are due to medical bills. They are also a lot less concerned about letting you die if you can’t afford to pay for treatment, and accepting of the fact that they might die if they can’t afford to pay.

He won't be able to get any insurance for the rest of his stay here and he's going to need to disclose the fact he's just needed medical treatment on any insurance he gets to go to the USA which will cost him an eye watering amount now.

Tbh it would have anyway but with this added it might be safer for him to cancel the trip.

You need to Google medical insurance for x country (where he lives) not look at money supermarket

I agree that it should be mandatory to have health insurance and it be checked before you fly. So it puts £10 on everyone’s flight - a small price to pay.

I don’t understand the “compassion” line: it’s not about not treating people, it’s about making them pay the costs. If the airline were billed then you can bet they’d pretty quickly be instituting a health insurance check.

Also, would some posters condone US citizens from the mid west coming over here in their droves for healthcare, given that their options are often price limited?

Lastly, I never get the “Daily Mail readers” insult: who posted the link? How did you see it if you weren’t reading?

Look under the reader comments section in the Daily Mail on any article about asylum and you will see the vilest of vile comments upvoted in their thousands- comments such as 'tow the boats back into the middle of the Channel and if they sink too bad' upvoted in their thousands.
Same question to a previous poster- you say it's not about compassion-so should the lady in question and her children not been treated and allowed to die? Are you really saying that?

I once watched UK border force which is a dreadful programme and whilst flipping channels it caught my attention. It was a feature on the border agency station in an African country.

A pregnant woman was travelling to the US via London. She was about 30 weeks so not about to give birth but getting there. She had family in the States. The UK border agency stopped her and asked her if the US embassy knew she was pregnant when she applied for her visa.

She wouldn't answer and went nuts at the official shouting that it was none of the UKs business and she was going to the US. To which the border guard responded it is our business as you've chosen to fly to States via London you're not going to straight there on a delta or US Airlines flight.

They refused to let her board and told her to speak to US embassy and inform them of her pregnancy. She never did and the visa was cancelled.

The explanation was any child born on US soil is a citizen and its quite common to go there to give birth because of this and they can potentially stay there.

She was going via London to avoid scrutiny by any US officials but the UK guards did it anyway.

So if we've got UK border guards doing this re the US interests surely our interests can be protected abroad before they get here. Mandatory insurance and full disclosure on visas.

I think you will need to contact a specialist insurance broker and get a custom made package for your dad, but given his age, his recent health history - which you will need to declare and which will then of course be listed as an exclusion - but also the fact that he is insuring from a country where he is not habitually resident, I think the premiums will be eye watering, especially for travel to the US.

There was a recent case where a family bought insurance for their child who wanted to remain with relatives after a family holiday in SA. They knew she would not be covered by their family travel insurance so bought a new policy from a UK based company . Unfortunately they didn’t read the small print, and when they had to claim on it were told it was invalid because she needed to have been in the UK at the start of the policy.

I had a suspected heart attack on a cruise ship ( it wasnt ) 1.5 hours later and $3942 on my credit card before I could get off the ship ! ( got it back of travel insurance )

Other places dont mess around!

Was about to mention the same article. OP, if it makes you feel better, if you make a round trip, most travel insurance is invalid. Your DDad really needs to call companies and explain his situation. Wish you and him the best of luck

With a quick Google I found this:
https://www.worldtrips.com/travel/visitors/uk-visitor-medical-insurance
It covers people from anywhere in the world it seems, and I did a quick quote and they would cover an 80 year old. He probably won't be covered in the UK as he's already travelled (generally insurance is only valid if purchased before travelling), but he could contact them to see if it would be valid in the US. I cannot vouch for this company in any way, it's just what I found after 20 seconds of Googling. I'm sure if you're specific about where he's actually from, you'll find loads more relevant insurers. If a policy would not be valid in the US as he's already left his country of residence, he'd honestly be better returning to his home country, purchasing insurance, they flying to the US. Going to the US without insurance is absolute lunacy.

This is poor advice. We link to records by their registered GP address

Could you take out an interest free-for-a-year credit card to pay it in full then pay off the cc in instalments instead of selling your car?

Certainly he really really shouldn't go to the USA without health insurance..........any medical bills incurred over there would make the UK bill look like small change.

Looks like you can get visitor insurance in American including after you arrive (but it wouldn’t cover any conditions existing before you bought it):

https://www.americanvisitorinsurance.com/insurance/visiting-usa-medical-emergency-without-insurance.asp

@ladle4455
Try World Nomads. It would depend on which country he is from, but they do cover people from many countries and if I remember correctly you can start the cover when you are already on holiday.

thanks @MustBeNapTime I entered details for an online quote but they say he has to be under 65.....