>>>>>I'm confused. English receive free medical care in Belgium?
>>>>
>>>>It's a reciprocal EU thing. I'm not sure of the mechanism in Belgium but in France a Brit would need to pay up front for a doctor (as indeed the French do), then claim back c. 75% froom the Social Security in the UK. I'm not sure if tghe French themselves have to pay that 25%.
>>>>
>>>>BTW as far as I know, if you came to the UK, cracked your head open, then you would be treated free of charge. There are no questions of who can pay at triage.
>>>
>>>Similar here. Crack your head open, they have to treat you, but then will hound you forevermore.
>>
>>There have been stories (I don't know if they're true) of having patients bounced or re-routed to somewhere else if they are found to be uninsured. Any truth to it?
>
>I know nothing of this. I've never been asked in a hospital if I'm British/resident/a tax payer/have national health insurance (this is taken out of our pay as tax). There are many British people/residents who have a foreign accent. I've never heard of, say, a London-based Asian being asked these Qs.
>
>The only mechanism I know of is that treatment for road accidents is clawed back from the motorist's car ins. co. but transparently to the patient.

I was asking Jay about this for the U.S. I can see there wouldn't be much point to that behaviour in England.