UK citizens that live abroad but don’t have an international health insurance policy could find it problematic getting access to the NHS except in the case of emergencies.
Expat Brits who live in Canada or America, for instance, will need to prove that they spend a certain amount of time per year in the UK in order to use the National Health Service for non-emergency care.
This type of reverse health tourism, whereby expats revisit their country of birth to seek free medical care, does not usually apply to those with private medical insurance policies that cover them abroad.
The policy, which include those people who live in Europe for over half the year, is applicable no matter how many national insurance contributions the individual may have paid.




