I answer this question almost every day:
“Victoria, what do I do about health care when I move to the United Kingdom?”
And my answer is always, “Nothing.”
Well, okay, it’s a little bit more complicated than nothing, but compared to everything else you have to do to move to the UK, like get a visa, a UK bank account, set up your Forex account to transfer money and get a flight, you would think that health care would be just as hard right?
Well, this is one of those rare things that are actually really easy to deal with when you move to the UK. See, you will be paying tax in the UK when you move there. You aren’t double taxed by Canada and the UK, nor by America and the UK. So, you pay taxes in the UK when you work there and not at “home.”
Since you’re paying UK taxes, you’re entitled to UK health care. It’s called the NHS, which stands for National Health Service. Here’s the step-by-step:
- Once you have an address, you can look at www.nhs.co.uk and look for your nearest doctor and dentist by typing in your postal code.
- Call the doctor nearest to you that is accepting patients. Get an appointment to register for the doctor.
- Go to your appointment.
- When you get sick, go to the doctor. Easy-peasy. Birth Control is free, and prescriptions cost 6 pounds each.
- If you get sick between your arrival and getting an address & doctor then you can go to the hospital and they will treat you there.
- When you leave the UK, you do need to get health insurance for your travels. So, if you plan to spend a weekend in Paris, don’t forget to get travel insurance for your trip, which you can purchase within the UK from a hundred different agents. You can also purchase insurance from the USA or Canada, but be prepared to spend more if you do that.
That’s it, that’s all!
Any other questions or advice to share about moving to the UK? Please share your thoughts below!
Also, I’m away at a conference until Sept. 30th so won’t be back blogging until Oct. 1st. See ya’all when I return!
I really found that I was under good care when I was treated by the NHS (although I did live with a doctor and a nurse, so perhaps they gave me some insight!). When I looked for providers there were several in my postcode, but I just signed up with the one my flatmate preferred, a 10 min walk away!
7. Once you get an NHS number, don’t forget to obtain a free European Health Insurance Card. It’s no substitute for private health insurance but it offers some limited coverage and is sometimes required by private insurance policy fine print. http://www.ehic.org.uk/
It takes a couple of weeks. If you’re Canadian, don’t bother phoning them as instructed; just post a photocopy of your passport and visa with your application form.
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