Expats healthcare conundrum.

There is a report today that suggests tens of thousands of expat pensioners living in the EU may return to the UK to use the NHS after Brexit - unless a deal can be done to let them keep receiving care abroad, paid for by the UK taxpayer.  So far so good.  If they have paid their taxes, why not. 

But here is where the story goes a bit awry.  The Nuffield Trust estimates the cost to the UK taxpayer of treating them on home soil, rather than abroad, could double the £500m the UK gives a year to EU countries that care for Brits who have retired abroad, to £1bn.  And Brexit will be to blame.  There’s a surprise.  

But doesn’t that all strike you as a bit odd?  It is going to cost double what it costs to have them treated abroad?  Why will it cost double?   Why will it cost so much more to treat the same people with the same issues back here inthe UK?

There really are only two alternatives.  Either the healthcare they are treated to in other EU countries is so poor it only costs half what it does in the UK which as we know is not true.  The French, German, Dutch, Belgian and Spanish healthcare systems are just as good as ours, if not better in some cases.  Or our UK health service is so inefficient that it costs double to deliver the same healthcare that these EU nations healthcare systems provide.  

Ah, but wait a minute.  Is this just another story made up to try to undermine the Brexit negotiations? 

Tucked in at the bottom of the BBC item it noted the Nuffield Trust said there could be gains too post-Brexit.  When the UK leaves the EU it could stop paying EU membership fees.  Money from this saving could be used by the NHS.  Nuffield Trust spokesman Mark Dayan said: "It is possible that extra funds could be found for the NHS from any cancellation of Britain's EU membership fees". 

So why does the BBC lead with the negative angle rather than the positive angle?

Answers on a postcard…..