do we need medical insurance to visit the UK if we live in the USA now?

[americanlife]

Medical insurance for visiting the UK? What do people do when they visit the UK with their US born children? Do I need to get medical insurance to cover them in case we need NHS access? Am I and my husband okay to use the NHS ( in an emergency) since we paid in to National Insurance for 15 plus years, before we moved here or are we no longer covered now we live in the US? Cover for all of us, two of us or none of us? Kids do not have UK passports yet but are entitled to them- not sure if that has any effect on it.

Our US insurance also covers us for overseas emergency treatment. Do you have insurance, OP?

It's based on residency eg where you pay taxes not nessisarily where you live. Get insurance. The NHS don't always bil as they suck at admin but they can bill you afterwards eg send you a bill up to a year post treatment and you would need to pay or potentially if on a non UK passport be banned from re entering the UK until the bill is paid. The .gov website has advice on this.

J4nice comment spreads anti migrant hatred and is completely false - residents of the UK are entitled to access the NHS. UK taxpayers are not only UK born citizens.

This is hate speech- would it be allowed about any other vulnerable group?

I come on this website for discussion and support and I encounter this post whipping up hatred against people like me- this isn’t an ‘opinion’, it’s pure bigotry.

Is it mumsnet’s position that this is the kind of post that helps make parents’ lives easier?

You’re definitely not covered (I’ve paid while living abroad and they are much better at collecting payment these days) but equally you might be surprised by the cheapness of the care, especially compared to US standards. It was a couple of years ago now but eg it was £1000 for me to have my son (induced, epidural, night on the ward). They told me they charge by the day rather than by the procedure/medicine. So £50k (whole still being quite low) should go further than if you were in a completely private health care system. Having said that I’d definitely find a better grave insurance policy that covers repatriation etc but check your home policy first.

J4nice comment spreads anti migrant hatred and is completely false - residents of the UK are entitled to access the NHS. UK taxpayers are not only UK born citizens.

Agreed, and glad to see it has been deleted.

You aren't covered as pp have said as it is based on residency, house owning doesn't count. Our US insurance covers us for overseas travel and our credit card also has coverage. Having said that we used a minor injuries clinic with dc and they had no interest in a UK sounding family's residence. It isn't like the USA where the insurance card is the first thing they care about.

Also being a UK tax player doesn't give you the right to us the NHS, we pay taxes on a property but aren't resident so cannot use NHS.

Obviously insurance is good - especially if you needed repatriation.

However, last week, my American nephew (staying with us, along with my brother and SIL) broke his ankle and we took him to A&E. We had to fill in forms etc, but were specifically told (and we double-checked) that they don't need to pay for emergency treatment. As they are here for several more weeks, this includes follow-up at the fracture clinic before they fly home.
So for emergency out-patient treatment you will be treated 'free at the point of need'. We were all grateful for the NHS at that point.

You need to check your current US medical insurance or buy a policy. See following NHS guidance relating to England

www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/uk-visitors/visiting-england/Pages/visitors-from-outside-the-eea.aspx