Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the ability of health insurance providers to reimburse the costs of dialysis treatment for people with kidney disease who need to travel in the EU in the event that there is no agreement on reciprocal provision of temporary healthcare cover for (a) tourists, (b) short-term business visitors and (c) service providers after the end of the transition period.

The Withdrawal Agreement between the United Kingdom Government and the European Union ensures that there will be no changes to reciprocal healthcare access for state pensioners, workers, students, tourists and other visitors, the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) scheme, or planned treatment during the Transition Period (until 31 December 2020).

This includes the EHIC which can support UK residents with long-term health conditions travelling to the EU who may require needs arising treatment.

The future of reciprocal healthcare arrangements between the UK and EU are subject to negotiations, which are currently ongoing. As part of its published approach to the negotiations with the EU, the UK has indicated that it is open to working with the EU to establish arrangements that provide healthcare cover for tourists, short-term business visitors and service providers. The UK’s published approach to negotiations, ‘The Future Relationship with the EU’ and the draft legal text of an agreement covering social security coordination (including reciprocal healthcare) can be found online at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/our-approach-to-the-future-relationship-with-the-eu

The UK Government is advising people with pre-existing or long-term medical conditions to also check the Money and Pensions Advice Service which has information on their website for people about their options for purchasing travel insurance. Further information is available at the following link:

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/travel-insurance-for-over-65s-and-medical-conditions