Hope this helps, extracts from
https://keepournhspublic.com/health-tourism-fact-vs-fiction/
"FICTION: “Health Tourism” is a problem for the NHS
In September this year Matt Hancock announced an additional
£1m funding to expand the team of experts responsible for recovering millions of pounds in costs for treating overseas visitors in the NHS.
Since the law changed in 2015 many people are no longer deemed ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK and are charged for all NHS care at
150% of cost price except for emergency care. Since 2017 the law has ben tightened further, putting pressure on Trusts to collect money from those deemed as ‘non-resident’.
FACT: Government policy on this has developed as part of their “hostile environment”
Government policy on charging upfront for treatment has rendered
600,000 people, including 120,000 children, ineligible for free NHS care. This has put many lives at risk and caused great hardship.
The policy has been opposed by almost all professional bodies representing doctors and midwives, by the health unions and now by the Labour Party which is committed to scrap the charges.
‘Health tourism’ refers to the idea that people travel deliberately to the UK to seek free treatment for a pre-existing condition.
The Government’s own estimate puts the cost of deliberate misuse of the NHS by overseas visitors at
£300m at most – equating to roughly 0.3% of the NHS budget. But the majority of this is attributed to British migrants that live overseas and return to the UK to use the NHS.
The £300m figure includes the use of primary care and A&E services and does not take into account an assessment of the likelihood of the people charged being able to pay the bill.
The (then) Government’s often used refrain “the NHS is a national, not an international, health service” mobilises the myth of ‘health tourism’ to justify a policy that is based on unreliable evidence, causes harm and leads to discrimination."