Fundamental Rights to healthcare and charging overseas visitors for NHS treatment: diversity across the United Kingdom's devolved jurisdictions

Human rights are considered as universal, yet, as the debates in this book all too clearly illustrate, respect for such rights is far from universal across the globe, or across continents or even, at times, within specific jurisdictions. Human rights in relation to health and healthcare can be particularly problematic. The challenge in asserting such rights relates to their definition and scope. A right to healthcare as a socio-economic right is one which is to be found in more recent human rights declarations. The assertion of such a right inevitably raises what can be acutely difficult issues concerning questions of resources. The tougher approach taken in England to charging third-country visitors was introduced under the former Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, in 2015. All jurisdictions are required to abide by the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Equality Act 2010 in avoiding any discrimination or inequality in implementing the charging regulations.