NHS in the UK - need info pretty quickly!

I DO want to get this problem fixed, for my daughter and all the other kids who will be in the same situation. Given that the year-long kids have to pay the NHS fee to the UK with their Tier 4 visas in addition to UC insurance... and that short-term students outside of Scotland in the UK have to pay a fee or pay for NHS, there's a lot of student money involved here.

It sounds like they have been onto a good thing here as they never have to pay out on that insurance if the student has bought the Immigration Health Surcharge, or from what you have said, study in Scotland!

Buying the Immigration Health Surcharge gives cover in all four countries in the UK as that NHS then claims those costs back from central government under the IHS scheme.


Dentistry isn't free on the NHS and has set rates and some things aren't covered at all. The English NHS has their dentist rates in bands. This seems to be the charges for the Scottish NHS.
http://www.scottishdental.org/public/treatment-charges/
The groups allowed free NHS dentistry are usually the under 18s, those who are pregnant and legally in the UK, those on certain low income benefits ect.

As I told the Uni EAP rep: who in their right mind would automatically assume that the NHS of a first world country would NOT be considered as equivalent to our rather pathetic Medicaid system (which is grounds for exclusion)?

The problem might be that not all first world countries offer their national health service to foreign students to use for free/flat fee and that health insurance from their own country would be needed.
http://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/student-finance/how-much-does-it-cost-study-germany

The home university would have to know how each country with a national health service worked and keep up to date with all changes these countries make to who can use their NHS for free, or they might leave their students without any health cover abroad. The UK changed their NHS rules this year and in 2010 for EU students. Even in the UK, the four countries that make up the UK have their own rules for their own NHS.

Not trying to stick up for the university, but leaving a student with thousands of $ of medicals bills in another country could leave them open to be sued.

Can you get the university in Scotland to provide her with a letter to confirm that Scotland will pay for any medical treatment she might need while on her visa?

Other things to think about might be:-

What would happen if she needed to be airlifted home with medical staff in attendance for the journey? Would you have private insurance to cover that if you don't use the university insurance?

Will NHS Scotland agree to pay all her health bills if she travels out of Scotland to say England and has an accident there and needs treatment? As said, with a visa of over 6 months she would be covered for that under the IHS scheme but without that England will bill her.

The problem might be that not all first world countries offer their national health service to foreign students to use for free/flat fee and that health insurance from their own country would be needed.
http://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/student-finance/how-much-does-it-cost-study-germany

The home university would have to know how each country with a national health service worked and keep up to date with all changes these countries make to who can use their NHS for free, or they might leave their students without any health cover abroad. The UK changed their NHS rules this year and in 2010 for EU students. Even in the UK, the four countries that make up the UK have their own rules for their own NHS.

Not trying to stick up for the university, but leaving a student with thousands of $ of medicals bills in another country could leave them open to be sued.

Can you get the university in Scotland to provide her with a letter to confirm that Scotland will pay for any medical treatment she might need while on her visa?

Other things to think about might be:-

What would happen if she needed to be airlifted home with medical staff in attendance for the journey? Would you have private insurance to cover that if you don't use the university insurance?

Will NHS Scotland agree to pay all her health bills if she travels out of Scotland to say England and has an accident there and needs treatment? As said, with a visa of over 6 months she would be covered for that under the IHS scheme but without that England will bill her.

Hi - Thanks for writing. Yes, we had thought of that. I would assume that if the Uni can arrange agreements with other universities for our students to study there as guests and have the credit transfer back, it should not be out of the question for there to be a document in their files per Uni stating what kind of healthcare they'd have while both in that country and at the host Uni. (The latter is already on most Uni websites I've seen.)

Her travel insurance handles emergencies and would repatriate her.  http://eap.ucop.edu/Documents/Insurance/1516/Insurance_Benefits_at_a_Glance.pdf  This insurance is blanket bought for all EAP students by the Uni, they tell us. (I have to assume some of the fees she pays actually do cover it, but that's neither here nor there. She's got coverage.)

If she, by some fluke, ended up with huge bills, there is bankruptcy since she's already otherwise indigent. As far as Uni liability, a signed Waiver of Liability should suffice.

In any event, there should be a process by which students can appeal this "one size fits all" mandate by providing proof otherwise. There is not, at present.

We'll let you know how it sorts out. - Nan

My daughter has a "one-off" waiver, with the condition that she not travel out of the UK (no plans for that anyway) and to be sure her Medi-cal is in place when she gets home (no issue, it's never been inactive).

The person with whom I spoke this afternoon said they are going to try to get a concise list of countries with similar programs put up on their website for students and staff to access, but was worried about there being so very many countries....  I reiterated that I thought that if a host school could provide detailed information about courses and housing, they could add a one-pager document that describes their health coverage. She thought that was a reasonable idea. Hopefully we've done some good beyond our own experience here.

She also said the info I was able to forward on from some of you was extremely helpful, so thank you for taking the time to do that for us.

Have a Happy Holiday Season!