Health Services: Reciprocal Arrangements
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total monetary value was of NHS costs submitted under the European Health Insurance Card scheme that were not recovered in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Karin Smyth
Under our agreements with the European Union, European Free Trade Association countries and Switzerland, we make claims to European countries for National Health Service costs incurred by temporary visitors from those countries. Claims are made in arrears and take up to four years before they are fully settled.
The following table shows the position of European Health Insurance Card and Provisional Replacement Certificate claims for the last three financial years as of 31 March 2025:
Financial year | Total value of claims submitted by UK (£000s) | Claims withdrawn by UK (£000s) | Claims paid to the UK (£000s) | Outstanding claims (£000s) |
2022/23 | 10,200 | 402 | 9,174 | 624 |
2023/24 | 12,054 | 233 | 6,570 | 5,251 |
2024/25 | 12,041 | 19 | 863 | 11,159 |
Grand Total | 34,295 | 654 | 16,606 | 17,035 |
These figures come from extracts from the NHS Business Services Authority’s claims processing database used by the Department for accounting purposes. Claims listed as withdrawn or paid have been settled whereas those listed as outstanding are still being agreed. We expect most outstanding claims to be settled in the United Kingdom’s favour.
This data excludes countries where NHS costs for temporary visitors are reimbursed based on a formula agreement which calculates costs from the number of visitors from that country to the UK. Further information is available at the following link:
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