A top Isle of Man government official is seeking an “urgent meeting” with UK secretary of state for health Andrew Burnham, according to an IoM press report that says he will seek to challenge Britain’s plan to end its reciprocal health care agreement with the island at the end of March.
The report is carried on the website of the Manx Independent newspaper. Last week the paper published a petition for Isle of Man readers to cut out and “send to family and friends in the UK” with instructions to forward to their MPs, urging them to become involved in the matter.
An online version of the petition is available at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/HealthcareIOMUK.
According to the report, Isle of Man health minister Eddie Teare has written to Burnham, “asking for an urgent meeting”, following “mounting pressure from the public and Tynwald members” over the scheduled loss of the reciprocal agreement, coupled with a growing sense that it might not be too late to reverse the UK government’s decision.
”This follows an assurance from [UK MP Andrew] MacKinlay – who approached Mr Burnham asking for a meeting last week– that the Health Secretary was happy to discuss the issue with the Minister,” the story, which may be read at www.iomtoday.co.im, says.
The report notes that Teare was not particularly hopeful that an agreement would be reachable, and that he had sought to approach UK officials about the matter in the past “without success”.
Change of heart
If Teare does intend to formally voice the island’s objections to the ending of its reciprocal health agreement with Britain, it represents a change of heart on the part of the island’s government, which 10 days ago through a spokesman told International Adviser that it regretfully accepted that Britain’s decision to end the agreement was “a policy decision not open to negotiation”.
As reported by International Adviser on 16 December, opposition to the ending of the reciprocal health care agreement on the Isle of Man was galvanised after UK Labour MP Andrew MacKinlay began asking questions in Parliament about the plans, beginning in November.
One of MacKinlay’s questions unearthed the little-reported fact that the UK continued to have reciprocal health agreements with some 23 other countries, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Serbia Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia.
Mackinlay’s questions and the responses to them may be found at www.theyworkforyou.com .
Visits covered
Under reciprocal health agreements, countries agree to provide medical treatment for one another’s citizens when they fall ill during visits.
Britain’s reciprocal health agreements with its offshore islands are said to have been less imbalanced in previous decades, when larger numbers of UK residents used to spend their holidays in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, than they became in recent years.
MacKinlay, who is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said his interest in the health agreements stemmed from his personal, “obscure interest” in the UK’s overseas dependencies and their constitutional relationship with Britain.
He said he had been unaware that the reciprocal health agreements with the Channel Islands had been ended until he found himself sitting next to Isle of Man speaker Stephen Rodan at a meeting in the autumn.
Jersey looking into reinstatement
MacKinlay’s interest in the subject has also prompted officials in Jersey to talk about looking into reinstating its agreement, with Jersey health minister deputy Anne Pryke saying in a statement that she has “been in touch with Mr MacKinlay” and noting: “we have deals with 13 other countries and we would like to have one with the UK”.
MacKinlay said the matter was important not only for people on the Isle of Man but for people in the UK, some of whom “can’t get travel insurance” for health reasons. Unable to buy healthcare, some elderly and unwell people on both sides of the border may no longer be able to visit relatives.
