Spokesmen for the governments of all three islands say that nothing has been finalised, but that they are reasonably certain that new or revised reciprocal agreements will be hammered out.
This optimism is perhaps greatest on the Isle of Man, where the existing reciprocal health agreement, though initially due to expire on 1 April, was extended for six months at the last minute.
There, a spokesman said Friday that developments were expected “in the next few days” that could mean the agreement – now due to expire at the end of September – may continue.
Also on Friday, Guernsey’s Health and Social Services department issued a statement in which it noted the Isle of Man’s “advanced stages of negotiating a possible new reciprocal health agreement” and that Jersey’s negotiations are “under way, and are likely to be influenced by the details of the IoM agreement”.
Guernsey, which is only about 18 miles (30km) from Jersey, is “waiting to learn details of both the IoM and Jersey negotiations before embarking on any ourselves”, the statement added.
“Jersey has agreed to keep Guernsey informed of any developments, and that any proposed new arrangement should not be detrimental to either bailiwick.
“Differences in Guernsey’s healthcare system could mean that any future RHA will need to take this into account, and may place us in a different position to the IoM and Jersey,” the Guernsey statement said.
Sea change
The reciprocal health agreements date back to the 1970s, when greater numbers of UK residents than now do used to spend their holidays in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. In recent years, the deals have become more costly for Britain, as more islanders have sought medical treatment in the UK than have Britons visiting the crown dependencies.
That Jersey and Guernsey are even talking about resurrecting their reciprocal healthcare agreements with Britain represents a sea change from a year ago, when the neighbouring islands were still coming to terms with having lost their reciprocal health agreements at the end of March. At this point last year, meanwhile, the Isle of Man was bracing for the ending of its reciprocal health agreement on 1 April, 2010.
Attitudes first appeared to change when a now-retired Labour backbench MP, Andrew MacKinlay, took up the islanders’ cause in late 2009, following a chance meeting last September with the Isle of Man’s Speaker of the House of Keys Stephen Rodan. In December, MacKinlay asked a series of questions in the House of Commons that shone a spotlight on an issue that few, until that point, had been aware of.
The idea that the way the ending of the agreements was handled may have been less than ideal was reinforced a few months later by criticisms contained in a report on the crown dependencies by the UK House of Commons Justice Committee.
Referring to the way the Isle of Man in particular had been dealt with, the Justice Committee report called it “a good example of how relations between the crown dependencies and the UK government can be badly damaged by insensitive handling of an important issue.”
For their part, Jersey officials last week referred to a meeting that took place in June between Jersey and the UK Department of Health, at which the establishment of “a new reciprocal health agreement between Jersey and the UK” had been discussed.
Key Jersey officials “will continue to liaise with the DoH in the coming months, working to a timetable which it is hoped will generate proposals for consideration by UK ministers and the Jersey Council of Ministers by the end of this year,” the statement added.
Reciprocal agreement with France
While the UK considers whether and how to re-instate its reciprocal healthcare agreement with Jersey, meanwhile, Jersey residents continue to be eligible for medical treatment, under certain circumstances, by France, under an arrangement that dates back to the 1950s.
Originally conceived to see that the “immediately necessary health care” needs of seasonal farm workers who travelled to Jersey from France were taken care of, the programme has been expanded to cover both French and Jersey citizens who contribute to the other country’s respective social security schemes while temporarily resident in the other jurisdiction.
Under this arrangement, health care is provided for such individuals on the same terms as any other local person – that is, a Jersey citizen living in France would pay the same amount that a French national would, in return for the same level of care.
The arrangement between France and Jersey does not cover non-urgent medical care, outpatient treatment, dental treatment, prescribed medicines or ambulance travel, according to a Jersey health department spokeswoman, who echoed the comments of officials on the other islands who stressed the sometimes-overlooked limitations of the reciprocal healthcare arrangements, even in their previous form.
