#medical-insurance

#medical-insurance

When the world's biggest healthcare scheme works, it allows tens of thousands of Indians petrified of the catastrophic cost of hospital treatment to breathe easy Indians such as Mahesh Kumar Sharma, a 60-year-old farmer from Madhya Pradesh who is a patient at the National Heart Institute in the capital, Delhi. A top cardiologist, Dr OP Yadava, has carried out open-heart surgery to replace his mitral valve.

The new system covers non-EU citizens who are crossing an external EU border - since Brexit, this includes the UK-France border. You can read a full explanation of how the system works here, but non-EU citizens who are crossing the border for the first time after the introduction of the system must supply biometric details (fingerprints and/or facial scan) and fill in a questionnaire.

Under strict new border rules, Britons travelling to Europe may have to show medical insurance and a return ticket to the UK, starting October 12.