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If I relocate to UK, with US retirements, what health service can I use?

Laurence Ford
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1 Answers1

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You can have full access to the NHS without paying if you are considered "Ordinarily resident" in the UK - basically this means living in the UK and considering it your country of residence for a period of time.

The full definition of ordinarily resident for the purposes of accessing NHS services ... is summarized as follows:

“A person will be “ordinarily resident…” in the UK when that residence is lawful, adopted, voluntary, and for settled purposes as part of the regular order of their life for the time being, whether of short or long duration.”

In practice, you are normally ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK if you are living and working in the UK and are:

  • A British citizen

  • Naturalised within the UK

  • Settled within the UK (commonly referred to as holding Indefinite Leave to Remain)

British citizens/EEA/Swiss nationals who are visiting the UK may be charged for NHS services they receive at the point of accessing care. The final decision to charge will rest with the healthcare provider.

https://www.hr.admin.cam.ac.uk/hr-services/relocating-uk/living-uk/healthcare/eligibility-nhs-treatment

In practice, emergency services are always available to you at no cost, while in theory you may have to prove ordinary residency for GP appointments and secondary care, but in practice this happens rarely if you can register with a GP by residing in their catchment area with a fixed address.

Source: my wife is a GP in the NHS.

Community
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  • Don't know why you're getting down voted. This is correct. Source: I've posted links to the NHS charging guidelines elsewhere on this site and anyone can find them online easily anyway. Also, I used to have a job involving taking payment from non entitled patients. – user16259 Mar 03 '18 at 06:49
  • @user16259 pretty sure I pissed off a high ranking user on another SE site, who is now downvoting me anonymously. –  Mar 03 '18 at 07:04
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    This question was going to be closed and should be closed, as belonging on the expats site. Maybe that is why people down voted. (+1 from me, as the answer is top.) – Willeke Mar 03 '18 at 07:44
  • @Willeke until it is closed, it can be answered, people shouldn't downvote on what they believe will happen - even closed, it still appears in searches, hot questions, related questions and other lists, so SE still consider them to have value. Thanks for the upvote :) The downvotes simply show how toxic SE can be - not voting because the answer is wrong, but voting because the question shouldn't exist. –  Mar 03 '18 at 07:58