The Grauniad wrote:New migrants to face £1,000 healthcare levy
Health secretary will also announce that free access to GPs for short-term visitors from outside Europe is to end
New migrants to Britain will have to pay an upfront levy of at least £1,000 to cover the cost of their healthcare in their first five years in the UK, the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is to announce on Wednesday.
The health secretary is also to announce that free access to GPs for short-term visitors from outside Europe who come for less than six months is to end. In future they will face a charge as they do for hospital care. European visitors will continue to get free access to the NHS and nobody will be refused emergency treatment.
Hunt is also expected to detail plans of a registration and tracking system possibly linked to the NHS number to check the immigration status of new patients who register at a GP surgery for the first time.
The healthcare levy will be charged in addition to the existing visa fees, which average £500 an application, for anyone coming to Britain from outside the European economic area for more than six months.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday, the health secretary confirmed that an upfront levy of £200 a year would apply to international students coming to Britain but denied that it would lead to public health risks from migrants with untreated HIV or TB.
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