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Comment by zapperdapper | Hacker News Reader

haha - I'm more like Mr. Shoestring Mustache. MMM has several hundred thousand a year coming in from his blog alone. He also had I think a million bucks in the bank before he retired. He also has a couple of rental properties I believe. I don't have anything like that.

I live in UK so healthcare is free here. Many years ago I had some mental health problems and the NHS here literally saved my life. I am so grateful for that. I also have a private medical plan that covers myself and my partner but it only costs about £1k a year, and I only have that because it can potentially reduce waiting times. I am considering just doing without it though.

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> I also have a private medical plan that covers myself and my partner but it only costs about £1k a year

I know you pay for it in other taxes and what not, but... for comparison, we're paying more than half that per month, and it doesn't cover any expenses until we spend $10k in a year. We are in a really crazy situation here.

In terms of the healtcare; is it free only for native citizens? What if someone were to move there from another country such as the United States?

Free for EU citizens. For people from the US there is a small charge if you move here https://www.gov.uk/healthcare-immigration-application/how-mu...

It doesn't cover tourists anymore in theory. They'd treat and then bill you but you could probably go home and not pay.

What about preexisting conditions? Would anything prevent someone who was just diagnosed with cancer (but not bed ridden) from migrating to the UK, paying this $300/year, and receiving full coverage?

Think it's ok - not sure http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=50455.0

You might have problems getting residence

They call this "health tourism" and its a fairly regular subject that comes up whenever NHS budgets are discussed, in reality though I believe latest figures put it at about £300m /year (0.3% of the NHS budget).

I don't know how easy it is to do what you describe but some people evidently do it. I imagine if you're an EU citizen you can come right in but if you're non EU you might have some more difficulty.

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