Reply to: only £2bn

[vetran]

Insurance is not going to help if NHS keeps being rubbish at collecting the bill. It's easier for the Hospital/NHS trusts to blame the health tourists for their financial woes, than doing something about it.

There are already rules in place that are designed to charge people not eligible for free NHS care for childbirth. The problem is no one is following up and collecting whats due.

Trying to shift the responsibility for it to the border control or the air lines is ludicrous, yes they can assist in the matter but ultimately it's up to NHS to get a grip. Unfortunately that's never going to happen.

hence the suggestion of an embedded revenue team to collect it, take it out of the NHS hands they are ideologically against collecting it. If you insist on insurance before a Visa the person can flee but the insurance company can be pursued far more easily. Let them do the legwork of chasing people in their own country.

[sal]

Insurance is not going to help if NHS keeps being rubbish at collecting the bill. It's easier for the Hospital/NHS trusts to blame the health tourists for their financial woes, than doing something about it.

There are already rules in place that are designed to charge people not eligible for free NHS care for childbirth. The problem is no one is following up and collecting whats due.

Trying to shift the responsibility for it to the border control or the air lines is ludicrous, yes they can assist in the matter but ultimately it's up to NHS to get a grip. Unfortunately that's never going to happen.

[vetran]

If the problem is really as big as reported (granted it is the Daily Mail), surely a requirement of health insurance covering pregnancy at the point of issuing visa should help with the cost. Couple that up with making airlines liable for some of the cost if they fail to turn away women if they are 32/33 weeks (whatever the guidelines are) pregnant.

It would not solve all potential cases, but will surely act as a deterrent.

I believe airlines have to offer free travel back to people if they have travelled on the wrong/fake visa. Add in pregnancy to that !

I'm all for insurance we need to change our rules as suggested above.

I don't see how airlines can do much if the pregnancy is not obvious. So long as their terms of carriage prohibit it they have done their job.

The Airlines do not issue Visas therefore they have no fault over respecting them.

This is a government issue.

[jbond007]

ok you work on a check in desk so you greet a woman with a noticeable belly and suggest she is pregnant she denies this do you

What exactly do you do?

These people are willing to lie to get free maternity service why would they tell the truth to the airline?

If the problem is really as big as reported (granted it is the Daily Mail), surely a requirement of health insurance covering pregnancy at the point of issuing visa should help with the cost. Couple that up with making airlines liable for some of the cost if they fail to turn away women if they are 32/33 weeks (whatever the guidelines are) pregnant.

It would not solve all potential cases, but will surely act as a deterrent.

I believe airlines have to offer free travel back to people if they have travelled on the wrong/fake visa. Add in pregnancy to that !

[vetran]

Heavily pregnant women are not allowed to fly.

But it's in the Daily Mail so it must all be true

ok you work on a check in desk so you greet a woman with a noticeable belly and suggest she is pregnant she denies this do you

What exactly do you do?

These people are willing to lie to get free maternity service why would they tell the truth to the airline?

[Eirikur]

Heavily pregnant women are not allowed to fly.

But it's in the Daily Mail so it must all be true

[stek]

Yes I was talking about student visas (Tier 4 visas) where the IHS fee is £150.

Yes u r right. I got it wrong, apols!

[SueEllen]

That Tier 5, YMS, not student (Tier 4). T5 YMS is a work/holiday visa, formerly known as WHM, Working Holiday Maker Visa.

Yes I was talking about student visas (Tier 4 visas) where the IHS fee is £150.

[stek]

I looked up the charge for students as I did hear some student say he paid a hundred and something a few days ago not two hundred.

Anyway if you look on the links you provided it is £150 for students linky

That Tier 5, YMS, not student (Tier 4). T5 YMS is a work/holiday visa, formerly known as WHM, Working Holiday Maker Visa.

[SueEllen]

Some Tier 2 sponsor pay all applicants visa fees, some don't or pay part.

Re: students they need to pay the IHS too, £200 a year as do dependants.

Family members of EEA citizens in UK not working (ie studying) have to have CSI from wherever, BUPA, Aviva etc....

https://www.gov.uk/tier-4-general-visa/overview

I looked up the charge for students as I did hear some student say he paid a hundred and something a few days ago not two hundred.

Anyway if you look on the links you provided it is £150 for students linky

[original PM]

What would Trump do, for the Mexican mothers that turn up for medical treament in the USA?

Grab em by the foof n chuck em over the wall apparently

[_V_]

Moreover, what can the NHS do? Turn mothers that are about to pop out on the street?

What would Trump do, for the Mexican mothers that turn up for medical treament in the USA?

[stek]

In the horrible place across the pond they bankrupt you if you can't pay your medical bills, and they don't let people leave the country without paying up.

Maybe the NHS should do that though we would have a problem with mother and baby units in immigration centres if the birth is one like this linky

There was one US birth on BBC that showed the bill for the birth of the baby with $39 on it for 'skin-to-skin contact' after a C section cos the nurse held the baby immediately after...

Robbing bastards!!

[stek]

I'm definitely sure the Indians didn't have to pay all off it as their employer paid some of it.

BTW Students pay £150.

Some Tier 2 sponsor pay all applicants visa fees, some don't or pay part.

Re: students they need to pay the IHS too, £200 a year as do dependants.

Family members of EEA citizens in UK not working (ie studying) have to have CSI from wherever, BUPA, Aviva etc....

https://www.gov.uk/tier-4-general-visa/overview

[vetran]

No? It only takes one baby/mother to die in front of the hospital, and even in the 21st century childbirth is a risky "business".

God forbid it's someone who actually had the right to NHS care but the bureaucracy couldn't sort it out in time.

I don't believe even at the horrible place across the pond they are going to leave a mother give birth in front of the hospital, they might ruin her with the bill afterwards, but this is a different matter.

so you know you are pregnant for 7-8 months and you can't register with the hospital or neonatal service in that time?

We of course let them give birth but we neither let them leave or pester the sponsor until we get paid.