Newsgroup: it.politica
Titolo: Gli immigrati non potranno piu' abusare dello NHS

www.telegraph.co.uk
 
Foreigners who use NHS will have to pay up front
By Colin Brown, Political Editor
(Filed: 28/12/2003) 
Foreigners who use the National Health Service will have to pay for 
their treatment in advance as part of a tightening of the rules on 
"health tourism", an abuse that is estimated to cost £200 million a 
year.
John Reid, the Health Secretary, will this week order hospitals to 
demand payments before overseas visitors receive treatment to stop 
the NHS being "taken for a ride". 
 
[[Picture] John Reid: 'The NHS is first and foremost for those living in the 
UK' ]
In an interview with the Telegraph yesterday, Mr Reid pledged that 
foreigners would no longer be able to abuse the free health service 
in this country.
"People are coming here on a so-called business trip and suddenly 
discovering that there is something wrong with them," he said. "We 
need to make sure that business travellers and their dependants will 
no longer receive free treatment if they fall ill or are injured on 
a trip to the UK, because there is widespread misuse.
"If there are emergencies here, and there are bone fide tourists 
dropping ill in the street, of course we will do what we have to do 
morally and legally, but we are not mugs. There is a difference 
between being civilised and being taken for a ride."
The details of the new measures will be announced by John Hutton, 
the health minister, this week, following a 14-week consultation 
with health authorities. A senior official at the Department of 
Health said: "We have a tradition of not asking people to pay before 
they are treated, but for foreign visitors, that will have to 
change."
The abuses by "health tourists" were recently "attacked as a 
scandal" by Baroness Boothroyd, the former Labour MP and Speaker of 
the Commons. They include women coming to this country on a 
six-month holiday visa when they are more than 34 weeks pregnant to 
give birth in NHS hospitals free of charge. From April, they will be 
told before they are treated that they will have to pay.
Hospitals are already entitled to charge those who they believe are 
not entitled to free treatment, but many have been lax in enforcing 
this right. Most fail to pursue debts when foreign patients fly home 
quickly after treatment.
Those who will be barred from free treatment under the new 
regulations include failed asylum seekers, HIV sufferers from abroad 
seeking long-term expensive treatment, and business travellers and 
their dependants.
Genuine emergency cases, including those suffering from infectious 
diseases such as TB and those going to accident and emergency units, 
will remain exempt from charges.
Mr Reid said: "The starting point I have is that the NHS is first 
and foremost for the benefit of those living in the UK. Visitors 
need to know that they will be liable to be charged for treatment. 
Failed asylum seekers have to be stopped from effectively stealing 
treatment from the people of this country.
"I am not talking about emergency treatment, matters of life and 
death. I am talking about routine treatment that causes the people 
in this country, who are legally and morally entitled to it, to have 
to wait longer."
Mr Reid said that there was no precise figure for the amount that 
the abuses were costing the NHS but it amounted to "hundreds of 
millions of pounds". He did not dispute one estimate that puts it at 
£200 million.
Dr Evan Harris, a Liberal Democrat MP, said: "I'd like to see the 
evidence for the £200 million figure. It's also simply unethical to 
stop treating people who need treatment. The Government is playing 
with a heady brew of foreigners and spongers for political reasons."
David Hinchliffe, the Labour chairman of the Commons select 
committee on health, welcomed the measure but warned that charging 
visitors could still leave NHS resources stretched.
He said: "We need to be very careful here if people are coming into 
this country and are being treated for conditions that have existed 
for a long time, they may overload the capacity. We need to be 
careful about the impact on the NHS."
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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Padania libera !
La capitale e' la gran Milàn !
Federalismo subito o secessione armata !
Los von Rom !
--
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Per non dimenticare: tra il 1987 e il 1994, la polizia di stato
italiana incaricata di rapinare banche, uffici postali, stazioni di
servizio e supermercati ha ucciso 24 persone tra Emilia Romagna e
Marche, ferendone 114. Nel solo assalto all'ufficio postale di via
Mazzini a Bologna, l'esplosione provocata dai poliziotti fece ben 40
feriti. Per contro, i reati che rimangono impuniti sono l'80.4% su
scala regionale (dato riferito all'Emilia-Romagna) e l'82% su scala
nazionale. Per il conseguimento di tali risultati degni di una
satrapia islamica, lo stato italiano estorce a noi cittadini del Nord
fino al 72% del reddito in tasse.
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"Il tricolore e' bello da vedere,
quando ricopre la cassa del carabiniere"
"Immigration's up, treaty costs up, crime's up... Had enough?"

 the NHS being "taken for a ride". 
Romeo, capisco i tuoi problemi, ma LEGGERLE, le cose, prima di
copincollarle, proprio no?
E dai, persino il Telegraph lo dice, che e' per i turisti, questa misura,
non per gli immigrati...
-- 
"If you can read this, you are closer to Allah than you think.
Have a nice day"
Note on the front of the Irish Guards' Warrior APCs

 e secondo te Iwamoto sono io ?
Scusa.
Continuo a confondere te e Roberto Cane'. E un errore che ho gia' fatto
una volta e ti ripeto le mie scuse.
-- 
Opinions are like assholes -- everyone's got one, but nobody wants to
look at the other guy's.