Petition · past parliament

Make airlines responsible for costs of medical care of healthtourists they carry

Rejected 10 signatures

What the petition asks

We cannot refuse to treat someone in the country already as this is inhumane, likewise recouping the monies post care is problematic. The best way to do this is to prevent those without suitable insurance from entering the UK at all.
Whilst this would likely be illegal to do directly we can legislate to make the carriers of uninsured persons responsible for their treatment. As no carrier would want to face a bill of hundreds of thousands of pounds, it would be likely that they would protect themselves by making health insurance a mandatory term of carriage when buying a ticket and enforce this at the check in desk. This would effectively prevent health tourist before they arrive in the country.

Why it was rejected

There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.

Timeline

14 Feb 2017 Petition opened for signatures
24 Feb 2017 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 10
Status Rejected
Rejected 24 Feb 2017

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.