EU proposes health tourism

The European Union (EU) is considering plans to extend patient choice beyond national borders.

Under proposals put forward by the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, patients would be allowed to go to other member countries for treatment and then reclaim the cost from their own health service.

This means that if someone needed an operation and had to wait for it in Britain, they could go to another EU country and claim money back from NHS.

The claims would be capped at the cost of the operation in the patient’s own country. If it cost more overseas, they would have to make up the difference themselves.

While the measures are some years away from being implemented, some Labour MPs have already expressed concern.

One told the BBC that this form of health tourism, as it has been described, would undermine the “principles and finances” of the NHS.

The British government is understood to have already secured an important concession, with health services given a veto on individual cases if they can demonstrate that the system would cause serious planning and budgetary issues.