Petition · past parliament
Visitors entering the UK on a visa must hold valid health insurance
Rejected
16 signatures
What the petition asks
Significant numbers of foreign nationals come to the UK without medical insurance and make use of the NHS before returning to their home country without paying for their treatment.
Examples are well documented in the trade press, in National News programmes on TV highlighted on the BBC2 documentary programme 'Hospital' Episode 4 on 1 February 2017. The Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London was unable to recoup £2.4m during 2015/16 from patients such as these.
No foreign national should be permitted to board a plane or ship to the UK without the port of departure ensuring that they carry adequate health insurance for the full duration of their visit.
No foreign national should be permitted to board a plane or ship to the UK without the port of departure ensuring that they carry adequate health insurance for the full duration of their visit.
Why it was rejected
There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.
Timeline
| 6 Feb 2017 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 15 Feb 2017 | Rejected by the Petitions Committee |
Key facts
Signatures
16
Status
Rejected
Rejected
15 Feb 2017
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.