health question

My wife is British, I'm American. We've been married and living together in the States for nearly 5 years now (Jan 22). We're visiting London in a week for Xmas. My wife is very early-on pregnant and will be about 7 weeks when we travel over. If god forbid we end up needing access to healthcare while in London, is she still covered by the NHS? Or should we get some travel insurance for her?

Anyone have advice or recommendation on travel insurance? We've never purchased it before because we're usually barely able to afford traveling at all.

Thanks for you help.

-Brian

If you have health insurance in the States, I would first call your insurance provider and check on international coverage.

But I'm also not familiar how using American insurance would work in England, maybe someone could field that one.

Since you're only going to be visitors in England this trip, I'm pretty sure she will not be eligible for the NHS (since she has no visa in her passport proving UK residence.)  If your American insurance covered her out of the country that would be ideal....not sure about travel insurance + existing pregnancy, though.

edited to add: It's important to note though that even overseas visitors can get emergency treatment on the NHS (trips to A&E, or emergency care by a GP/Walk-in Centre)...it's just stuff like routine visits and lengthy hospital stays that she wouldn't be covered for.

More information on overseas visitors and the NHS

She's British, so I assume that she has paid National Insurance in the past, and can give a UK address if asked...

Vicky

Oh, you're right, Vicky!  Apologies to the OP, I read your post wrong and was assuming your wife was American and you were British.  Just to be thorough, your wife may not be strictly eligible for the NHS as she's been living abroad...but as Vicky says, in practice she will most likely be able to get treatment if she has a UK address somewhere

Just for information, the way international coverage works with American Insurance is that unless you have specific travel insurance, you pay everything out of pocket and then make manual claims back to the insurance company out of the States.

She's British, so I assume that she has paid National Insurance in the past, and can give a UK address if asked...

Just as a side note, you don't have to have ever paid NI contributions to get treatment on the NHS if you're a British citizen.  In fact, National Insurance has nothing to do with the NHS, which is funded by direct taxation.