Originally Posted by
stimpy
Thanks for all the input. I had thought that health care was free for all people foreign or otherwise in the UK. I know it is free in Belgium. The incident happened in Ireland and the local hospital was seriously understaffed. So we thought flying to London might be a good choice. Anyhow, it is all taken care of now.
It seems you don't know who pays for the NHS.
It might be "free" in the sense that you aren't (usually) presented with an invoice prior to departure, but along with most other taxpayers I pay a not-insignificant chunk out of my salary every year to keep the NHS afloat.
You'll find people don't look too kindly upon non-residents coming to the UK for the sole purpose of availing themselves of our health service and, by extension, our money.