Request

Please provide the following information under FOI law

1. full schedule of uk databases used to check eligibility for Health Insurance Card eg NI, passport, register of births

2. number of applications for HI Card received april 22-april 23

3. number of applications rejected due to lack of  proof of eligibility april 22-april 23

4. number of people required to provide further proof following application

5. NHS definition of legal criteria for eligibility for Health Insurance Card

Your request was received on 16 August 2023 and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

On 3 December 2023 you clarified the following:

1) When assessing UK Global Health Insurance Card applications does the Authority have access to UK Government records? For example Registration of Births, National Insurance, EU Settlement Scheme records, UK Passport Office Records, DVA Records of Driving Licences?

2) Please give me the number of applications for UK Global Health Insurance Card applications in the last financial year. Please also indicate the number that were approved and the number rejected due to insufficient proof of residency.

On 27th December 2023 you clarified the following:

5) I can confirm I want the information for EHIC, UK EHIC and UK GHIC.

Response

Question 1

When assessing UK Global Health Insurance Card applications, the NHSBSA has access to some UK Government records, such as EU settlement Scheme records. The NHSBSA does not have access to National Insurance records, Registration of Births, UK Passport Office Records or DVA Records.

UK Global Health Insurance Card applications are based on a residency system and the NHSBSA will use third party data provider Equifax to establish UK residency. This is stated in our Privacy Notice.

https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/our-policies/privacy/overseas-healthcare-services-privacy-notice#:~:text=You%20have%20the%20right%20to,it%20for%20longer%20than%20necessary

Question 2

There were 6,510,849 UK Global Health Insurance Card applications in the last financial year.

Question 3 and 4

6,016,310 applications were approved and 145,876 were rejected because we were unable to establish proof of residency. 

The remaining applications were either rejected for other reasons, or we have not yet finished dealing with them.

Question 5

The following links provide definitions of legal criteria for eligibility for UK GHIC and UK EHIC:
• https://faq.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/knowledgebase/article/KA-26813 • https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/healthcare-abroad/apply-for-a-free-uk-global-health-insurance-card-ghic/ Please note that we do not issue EHIC anymore as that card has been replaced by the UK EHIC.