Petition · past parliament
Ensure that visitors to the UK have medical insurance for their stay.
Closed
59 signatures
What the petition asks
Medical attention given to overseas visitors (inc health tourism) is a drain on the NHS. The Border Agency should develop a method to ensure that visitors with visas also have appropriate medical insurance to cover them for their stay. The NHS could recover some of the £2B spent on overseas visitors
The combined cost of "deliberate health tourism" and unintentional visitor use of the NHS is estimated to be £2 billion per annum. No system is likely to be foolproof but every effort should be made to recover as much of that money as possible. Any recovered money should go directly to the relevant NHS trust.
Only 5% of that amount, £100 million, was recovered in 2013/14.
Only 5% of that amount, £100 million, was recovered in 2013/14.
Timeline
| 6 Feb 2017 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 2 May 2017 | Closed to new signatures |
Key facts
Signatures
59
Status
Closed
Opened
6 Feb 2017
Closed
2 May 2017
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.