New migrants to face £1,000 healthcare levy
Health secretary will also announce that free access to GPs for short-term visitors from outside Europe is to end
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Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary. Photograph: Wpa Pool/Getty Images
New migrants to Britain will have to pay an upfront levy of at least £1,000 to cover the cost of their healthcare in their first five years in the UK, the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is to announce on Wednesday.
The health secretary is also to announce that free access to GPs for short-term visitors from outside Europe who come for less than six months is to end. In future they will face a charge as they do for hospital care. European visitors will continue to get free access to the NHS and nobody will be refused emergency treatment.
Hunt is also expected to detail plans of a registration and tracking system possibly linked to the NHS number to check the immigration status of new patients who register at a GP surgery for the first time.
The healthcare levy will be charged in addition to the existing visa fees, which average £500 an application, for anyone coming to Britain from outside the European economic area for more than six months.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday, the health secretary confirmed that an upfront levy of £200 a year would apply to international students coming to Britain but denied that it would lead to public health risks from migrants with untreated HIV or TB.
"There will be an exception for all public health grounds whether it is TB or HIV," Hunt said. "We want to consult on making sure that we do not do anything that will put public health at risk."
The health secretary confirmed that the consultation being launched on Wednesday would only last six weeks but denied that it was being rushed. He said an audit would be carried out to establish firm figures about the current cost to the British taxpayer of treating migrants.
"We want to get this right," he said. "We have one of the most open health system for visitors in the world. One of the issues is that it is so easy to get an NHS number and that means you have a passport to the whole system."
But the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners issued a stark warning that the move did raise serious public health risks.
"People use the NHS if they've got infections and we certainly don't want to have people wandering around for fear of being charged at the GP surgery," said Clare Gerada of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
"At the moment we are fairly accessible and I think it is important to keep it that way. I don't think we should be turning the GP surgery into a border agency. I think we should be making sure that people who do feel that they are ill can come and access us because we certainly don't want people who have got TB or HIV or any other infectious disease, or in fact anybody that believes themselves to be ill, to be frightened of seeing a GP for fear of being charged," she said.
A total of £1,000 is likely to be payable for those applying for a five-year visa but negotiations are still going on within the coalition that could see a levy running into thousands of pounds.
At present, short-term migrants coming to Britain to work or study with more than six months on their visas are likely to qualify for free hospital care as soon as they arrive. Ministers are exploring whether making private health insurance compulsory might be a viable alternative. The plans are to be outlined in a cross-government consultation paper detailing the options for denying illegal migrants access to public services as part of the Conservatives' drive to reduce net migration to less than 100,000 a year by the next general election.
The levy is likely to prompt renewed claims that Britain is "closed for business" and hinder higher education institutions in their drive to attract overseas students. More than 270,000 migrants came to study and work in Britain last year from outside the EU who are likely to be affected by the levy, with India and China each accounting for more than 15% of the visas issued. The consultation paper is expected to detail the arrangements for asylum seekers and refugees.
Hunt justified the new measures saying: "We need to ensure that those residing or visiting the UK are contributing to the system in the same way as British taxpayers, and ensure we do as much as possible to target illegal migration. We have been clear that we are a national health service not an international health service and I am determined to wipe out abuse in the system."
But the former Liberal Democrat minister, Sarah Teather, sharply criticised the plan saying that it would put off talented people who wanted to work in Britain and contribute to the economy: "I heard that Britain is supposed to be open for business. This sounds like Britain is closed."
The consultation paper is to be followed by an immigration bill that was trailed in the Queen's Speech but the continuing lack of progress within the coalition on the issue means it is unlikely to be published before the autumn.
Ministers will also detail the current state of their plans to require private landlords to monitor the immigration status of their prospective tenants.
Teather, also strongly criticised the plan by the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, calling it unfair and completely unworkable: "Anybody who looks or sounds a little bit foreign is going to find they can't rent a property," she said.
The consultation document to be published on Wednesday will be light on detail of options beyond health and housing but further consultation papers are expected on restricting access to welfare benefits and a system of biometric residents' cards to enable the new system to operate. The Liberal Democrats have blocked a Tory proposal to ban the children of illegal migrants from schools in Britain.
The London mayor, Boris Johnson, added to the tensions within government over the intractable issue of immigration by renewing his call for an amnesty for undocumented or illegal migrants who have been in Britain for more than 12 years.
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