New Balearic crackdown on UK tourists who don't pay their medical bills

When the UK was part of the European Union, recuperating the costs of treating felllow EU patients on holiday was not a problem, now however, it appears the UK run up a signficant debt in Spain, in particular the Balearics, and Spanish authorities are going to take action.

Since Brexit the EU rules on cross-border healthcare and health insurance have gone. Sadly, the UK tops the list of countries with unpaid medical bills.

Once they have gone home, the process of getting money from patients – particularly from outside of the EU is complex and often ends unsatisfactorily for the hospital. As unpaid bills stack up, hospitals get less keen on medical tourism.

Apart from hospitals, it also hits the government in the Balearics. In total tourists still owe the public health services on the islands more than €7 million.

The Balearic Islands Health Service (IB-Salut) will hire an outside company to collect unpaid bills from tourists and medical tourists who have been treated in hospitals or health centres and who have never paid. The total debt built up in this way in the period 2019 to 2022 now amounts to more than €7 million.

The United Kingdom tops the list of bad debts by nationality, followed by Germany, France, and Italy according to a report published by IMTJ.