The future of free healthcare is the real Brexit issue for elderly British expats across the European Union.
They fear that they must return home if they lose free access to medicine, doctors and hospitals if the British government fails to thrash out an agreement after pushing the Article 50 button.
Expats queued to give evidence to the House of Commons Brexit Select Committee that they could not afford private medical insurance and would have no other choice than to leave their homes overseas if they had to pay for their own healthcare.
A recent study by the BBC showed that few EU nationals retire to the UK or sign up for free care from the National Health Service.
Only a handful of French nationals are registered in the UK, compared with almost 50,000 British expats.
Expats tell MPs of concerns
And while more than 145,000 British expats take advantage of the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), only 4,000 Europeans benefit from the arrangement in the UK.
The NHS refunds almost £675 million for expat treatment to EU health services every year, the amount going the other way is around £50 million.
“A big concern is people wondering if they have free healthcare in future, particularly if you are elderly. If your only alternative was private cover, for most that would be the difference between staying in Spain and leaving,” said Sue Wilson of the British expat group Remain in Spain told the committee.
Other expats from France, Italy and Belgium voiced the same concerns, while Polish and Romanian expats in the UK fear their status in the country is uncertain even though they have homes and businesses in the Britain.
Plea to show good faith
Debbie Williams, who was speaking for the group Britons in Belgium, said stopping financial healthcare support provided could be “a deal breaker for some people”.
“There could be hundreds of thousands of people returning because of the healthcare issue,” she said.
Some expats called for Prime Minister Theresa May to show good faith to the rest of the EU by making a unilateral declaration protecting EU expats rights in the UK.
“If it is UK that is triggering this process, it is not 27 states. Therefore, it would be a magnanimous gesture on the part of the prime minister, and a good way of opening negotiations, to begin by saying we are doing this for EU nationals in the UK and we call on you to do the same,” said Christopher Chantrey, a Briton living in France representing the Expat Citizen Rights in EU group.
