A study by the Institute for Public Policy Research found that charging migrants for their healthcare “incentivises racial profiling”. This is the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offence.
A hospital employee claimed that racial profiling was a key part of the system used to judge which patients should be billed for urgent care.
The report proposes changing the current policy so that everyone who is living in the UK, regardless of their immigration status, is eligible for free medical care.
At the moment, people living in the UK are refused free hospital care because of their immigration status. This policy is cruel, it undermines the founding principles of the NHS and puts all of our health in danger. But it doesn’t need to be like this.
Full report here.