In a move that doctors fear may encourage racial profiling to identify chargeable patients, the government has announced that charges paid by temporary migrants to the UK to use the NHS are to double to £400 a year. This move is designed to raise around £220m a year for the health service while ensuring that migrants made a “fair contribution” towards its costs. The discounted rate for students and those on the youth mobility scheme will also increase from £150 to £300.
The immigration health surcharge is payable by persons from outside the European Economic Area who reside in the UK for six months or more. It was introduced in 2015 as a way of discouraging “health tourism”, where people travel to Britain for NHS treatments they are not entitled to.
