WARRINGTON North Conservative Parliamentary candidate Richard Short has welcomed the announcement that from next Monday, all non-European nationals coming to live in the UK for longer than six months will have to pay a “health surcharge” to receive NHS treatment.
The charge will be £200-a-year – £150 for students – and will have to be paid with the visa application.
Currently, non-Europeans coming to work, study or join family members, receive free NHS treatment like any other UK resident.
Mr Short said: “Charging foreign nationals for NHS treatment is a sensible step forward and makes sure that the NHS is free at the point of delivery for UK taxpayers and not all-comers regardless of their nationality.
“Along with closing down bogus colleges and reforming access to benefits this is another way we can make the UK accessible to those willing to work and contribute and not those who just want to abuse the system.
Reducing the surcharge for students to one per cent of their studying costs recognises the valuable contribution made by foreign students to our universities and is a fraction of the costs charged by other countries, making the UK the right place to study for a high class degree without prohibitive healthcare charges.”
Having paid the surcharge, migrants will have the same access to the NHS as a UK permanent resident for the duration of their visa. The money generated by the health surcharge will go directly to funding the NHS.
Tory welcomes “health surcharge”
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