Citizens of the European Economic Area (EEA), made up of EU member states, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, can get public healthcare in all EEA states, which is then claimed back from the government of their home country.
The BBC figures reveal that around 70,000 retired Brits living in Spain use the country’s health system, while just 81 Spanish pensioners are registered as covered by the NHS.
This represents the biggest disparity in the numbers of pensioners covered by the reciprocal healthcare agreement, as of December 2016.
Expats in France
Meanwhile in France, 43,000 British pensioners were registered to use the French health service, compared to only 201 French pensioners covered by the NHS.
In Cyprus 12,000 British pensioners are covered by the health service, with fewer than five Cypriot pensioners using the NHS.
Britain paid £674.4m (€777.6m, $819m) to other EEA countries to cover the medical cost of British citizens living abroad in the 2014-2015 financial year, while it claimed back £49.7m to pay for EEA citizens’ treatment in the UK.
Healthcare is a key topic in the UK negotiations to secure reciprocal rights for expats when Britain leaves the European Union.
While some British pensioners who have been living abroad for more than five years might still be granted access to public healthcare under an EU directive, this would still require they have health insurance and sufficient income not to be a burden on the public funds of the member state in which they reside.
However, many commentators have said it is unlikely that Britain’s reciprocal healthcare agreements with the EEA will be scrapped as it would open the door to retaliatory measures from the UK, which currently hosts 3.3 million expats from European nations.
