New hope for health deal?
Tuesday 9th June 2009, 3:00PM BST.
Ben Shenton wants the recipricol health agreement to be reinstated
FORMER Health Minister Ben Shenton has raised fresh hopes that the reciprocal health agreement with the UK can be resurrected.
He has written to David Cameron and the shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, asking them to consider reinstating it should the Tory party come to power at the next general election.
The Senator has also forwarded the Conservative front benchers several media reports detailing the effects that the scrapping of the 30-year deal on 31 March has had on both Islanders and UK residents.
‘This is an issue that affects UK voters and one which can be solved to the benefit of all in a positive manner,’ he wrote.
Senator Shenton, who was Health Minister when the UK Department of Health first notified the Island that it planned to withdraw from the agreement in May 2008, yesterday said: ‘While I accept that the previous arrangement was financially flawed, there remains an opportunity to put in place a fair and equitable arrangement which would be to the benefit of both Jersey and mainland residents.’
See Tuesday’s JEP for full story.
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Good news if it can be made to work, the previous scheme was unbalanced and hence flawed. A good dollop of Jersey cash for the NHS is far better than a bureaucratic paper chase. However, as the NHS moves ever further down the route of delegated budgets.
Hence is it new hope or some hope?
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good luck ben.
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Should be simple enough – we pay back the 80 million pounds that we owe them from overpayment and it’s reinstated.
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I am not sure how this would be funded but I doubt that David Cameron and his boys will be giving anything away for free as they will be pretty cash strapped and I don’t see there would be much in it for UK voters.
It is possible that the agreement could be resumed but I think we would be in a position of writing a cheque to the UK of several million a year, this could come out of the present health budget or money taken from elsewhere.
Sadly the decline of tourism means that the agreement is worth more to us than to the UK and they now hold by far the stronger hand in any negotiations
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I don’t believe it…
He’s come up with a good idea!
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Yes I hope he sorts it out after my experience with my 81 year old father at the general hospital this week !! also being told over the phone if i am worried bring him in but if he is admitted its £ 1500 how very compasionate! they might have asked if he had insurance first!!! I have been in the hotel trade all my adult life and my father has been coming here for 36 years to visit me I wonder how many other people are not now coming because of the health situation it took me a week to find insurance that would cover him in jersey and even now I am having trouble with claiming as they say that the doctors in jersey are private !!!
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Meanness and hypocrisy is now at the heart of the UK. Maybe we can just say goodbye to them altogether and get total independence.
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I am haveing the same problem with my father of the same age. I can’t take him off the Island as I am unable to get insurance for him. Good luck Ben as always another good idea.
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I agree with 2 david brown and 5 Bernard .
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It is unfair that UK and Jersey taxpayers are obliged to pay for medical services in each others jurisdiction, and here is why.
We pay out taxes and social security on our earnings, even if we are away in the UK for any reason. It is therefore right that Jersey pays for its residents if they are unfortunate to end up in a UK hospital. If the States wont pay, then your income received while out of the island should be received gross without deductions for tax and social security.
Of course in practice, this would be unworkable, so reinstate teh reciprial agreement, on the basis that a cash payment is made either way every six months to balance the books.
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Warren J – that doesn’t make sense! You wouldn’t expect Jersey to pay for your treatment if you were taken ill in Russia or Azerbajan on a trip, and you’d still be paying tax and social security in Jersey!!
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Although well intentioned, this could seriously annoy the present Labour government who, assuming they lose the next election, may be in power for another year. There are plenty of other areas that they could poke their noses in if they want to make life difficult for us, for example, defence contributions and charges for foreign consular services.
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Yay, it relies on the Tories getting back into power.
No doubt it will happen once I qualify for a health card, and they won’t backdate it in anyway to help any of those that Jersey treated ridiculously when the agreement was withdrawn!
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