Government to charge illegal immigrants for Health care

[olive]

For the under-65s, the cost will be 710.40 euros a year, or 59.20 a month. For those over 65, the fee will rise to 1,864.80, or 155.40 a month. In both instances the payment will allow access only to basic state healthcare services. Costs for medicine and health transport services will be excluded and should a monthly payment be missed, the policy-holder will have their medical access suspended for three months.

Full article here in El Pais http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/08/07/ine ... 44840.html

Interesting. Especially the definition of illegal immigrant.... Surely if you came forward and said I think I am an illegal immigrant and want to pay for my health care you could just be deported there and then?

[mijas-lady]

well if they are illegal they will hardly register or open bank accounts etc so how will they pay the monthly fee

[Free at Last]

well if they are illegal they will hardly register or open bank accounts etc so how will they pay the monthly fee

I can't imagine many of them having the wherewithal to pay it anyway. €59.20 per month per person is more than our private medical insurance premiums (currently €102.00 for a couple).

[Julie]

Another example of why I sometimes think Spain do crazy things If the Illegals say they can't pay, they will just put the price up

[Martin Page]

I think its brilliant - its a pity the rest of Europe doesnt pick it up.
Get Ill and die - one less illegal to wory about !
Can you see the UK doing it though ....My Arsce !

[Lavanda]

Yes. It's a bit weird to charge an illegal person for healthcare but the REAL issue is that they will not get ANY healthcare unless they pay. I used to be a blue-eyed dreamy socialist, commune-loving all-in-it-together commie teenager with long hair and flowers and I loved everyone. Then I left college ... got a job ... paid taxes ... bought a house ... paid a mortgage ... paid bills and somehow turned into a tired-eyed meal-ticket for those not willing to do anything themselves except be happy to make people like me feel good about themselves because we were providers. I'm now in my red-eyed dotage and fed-up with the burden of carrying dead-weights. If able-bodied illegal people (in ANY country and without an Amnesty International stamp on their bums) drop dead in the street for want of healthcare paid for by my taxes I'm happy to pray for their souls.

[Footprint]

Yes. It's a bit weird to charge an illegal person for healthcare but the REAL issue is that they will not get ANY healthcare unless they pay. I used to be a blue-eyed dreamy socialist, commune-loving all-in-it-together commie teenager with long hair and flowers and I loved everyone. Then I left college ... got a job ... paid taxes ... bought a house ... paid a mortgage ... paid bills and somehow turned into a tired-eyed meal-ticket for those not willing to do anything themselves except be happy to make people like me feel good about themselves because we were providers. I'm now in my red-eyed dotage and fed-up with the burden of carrying dead-weights. If able-bodied illegal people (in ANY country and without an Amnesty International stamp on their bums) drop dead in the street for want of healthcare paid for by my taxes I'm happy to pray for their souls.

well said!

[katy]

Cking Hell! I thought I was a bit right wing but this sounds like NF R UZ.

[Julie]

Lavanda, you took the words out of my mouth

[katy]

Don't you think it is the system that is wrong not someone who has entered from some third world hell hole for a better life. I am all for closing the borders and stopping their housing benefits but if it comes to leaving someone dying in the gutter then they are welcome to take it out of my tax money.

[Free at Last]

Don't you think it is the system that is wrong not someone who has entered from some third world hell hole for a better life. I am all for closing the borders and stopping their housing benefits but if it comes to leaving someone dying in the gutter then they are welcome to take it out of my tax money.

I am so glad you said that. These are human beings, for heaven's sake. But for an accident of birth, we could have been born into the circumstances that have forced them to risk their lives (in many cases) in an attempt to get just a tiny bit of what we all take for granted. And the ones who come to Spain don't even get generous benefits and their housing paid for.

It's the people who are born into our developed society who have access to opportunities but choose not to take them that are the ones who should be given a wake-up call.

[Colinm]

and illegal immigrants dying in the gutter will put up the cost of sanitation sevices

[peteroldracer]

Anyone putting the corpses in the big rubbish bins outside the permitted hours could be fined.

[Lavanda]

"It's the people who are born into our developed society who have access to opportunities but choose not to take them that are the ones who should be given a wake-up call."

Possibly but let's not forget the people from our 'developed society' who go to work for NGOs and do fantastic work in 'underdeveloped societies' and the trillions each year pumped into these countries through charities, grants and overseas aid. That's my taxes — so don't anyone give me a lecture on not helping people dying in the gutter. I'm just a bit selective about whose gutter they die in, I guess, but the money (or lack of it as they are dying) is still coming from taxpayers. There is no other money.

What I find wrong is that there are more doctors and nurses in England from certain African countries than there are in those countries. Why does a Nigerian (for example) doctor work in the UK treating Nigerians rather than in Nigeria? Money. Some other tax payer's money.

Why not train people in their own countries to stay there and help their country become 'developed?'

[katy]

Hmmm seems to have turned into another UK rant Getting back to the OP. Lavanda, you are an immigrant too. Spain has already moved the goalposts for residency...imagine the scenario where Spain leaves the EU and tears up the treaty giving reciprocal health rights to British pensioners. Would you think it OK for yourself to be left in the gutter if you couldn't afford private health insurance?

[olive]

When I saw this item in the press, I wondered if its purpose was to actually allow people who were here quite legally but were below the retirement age of their home EU country, to pay for their basic state health care till retirement.

There must be an awful lot of Expats treading a dangerous line of "if something happens to me I can get emergency treatment here or go back to Britain say and get treated there".

But as has been pointed out before, private insurance here is cheaper than these premiums and presumably gives better cover.

[gus-lopez]

Hmmm seems to have turned into another UK rant Getting back to the OP. Lavanda, you are an immigrant too. Spain has already moved the goalposts for residency...imagine the scenario where Spain leaves the EU and tears up the treaty giving reciprocal health rights to British pensioners. Would you think it OK for yourself to be left in the gutter if you couldn't afford private health insurance?

They would also have to tear up the seperate bi-lateral agreement which entitles Spanish /British citizens to healthcare in each others countries , as well . Can't see that happening.

When I saw this item in the press, I wondered if its purpose was to actually allow people who were here quite legally but were below the retirement age of their home EU country, to pay for their basic state health care till retirement.

Yes that is it's primary intention under article 12/5 of the BOE. Sells more papers though as 'healthcare for illegals'.

[El Cid]

They would also have to tear up the seperate bi-lateral agreement which entitles Spanish /British citizens to healthcare in each others countries , as well . Can't see that happening.

If Spain left the EU then it would almost certainly retain membership of the EEA and that would mean none of the reciprocal rules and free movement etc would be affected.

The same would apply if the UK left the EU.

Sid

[Campo Steve]

When I saw this item in the press, I wondered if its purpose was to actually allow people who were here quite legally but were below the retirement age of their home EU country, to pay for their basic state health care till retirement.

Yes that is it's primary intention under article 12/5 of the BOE. Sells more papers though as 'healthcare for illegals'.[/quote]

I'm getting confused with all of this. What is the situation with regard to Brits that took early retirement in the UK and moved permanently to Spain, doing everything legally? In our case, we moved here with my OH due to qualify for state retirement at age 60 (three years from now). That meant we would get healthcare in Spain on that date. Then UK changed the retirement age for women and we have to wait another 5 years, I.e. another 5 years paying for private health care.

Is it now proposed that we won't have to wait that extra 5 years, how long will we have to wait, is there anything we should do now in preparation? If things are changing, when are they likely to be implemented?

[katy]

They would also have to tear up the seperate bi-lateral agreement which entitles Spanish /British citizens to healthcare in each others countries , as well . Can't see that happening.

If Spain left the EU then it would almost certainly retain membership of the EEA and that would mean none of the reciprocal rules and free movement etc would be affected.

The same would apply if the UK left the EU.

Sid

Of course it's unlikely. I was using the scenario to demonstrate to the ones able to watch people dying in the gutter that anything is possible and how would they feel if the boot was on the other foot!