Healthcare arrangements with Gibraltar and EFTA countries post-Brexit

The UK will maintain the current reciprocal healthcare arrangement between the UK and Gibraltar until 2020. Plans to grant residents from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway similar rights post-Brexit as those from EU Member States, have also been outlined.

The UK will maintain the current reciprocal healthcare arrangement between the UK and Gibraltar until 2020. This means that Gibraltar can continue to refer an unlimited number of their patients to the UK for free elective treatment. A deal for after 2020 is being negotiated between the UK and Gibraltar governments.

Following on from the agreement reached in December to secure the rights of the 3 million EU citizens living in the UK and the 1 million UK citizens living in the 27 Member States, government officials have met with their EEA/EFTA counterparts to extend the deal to each other’s citizens.

The deal, which includes residency and healthcare, could be extended to the 18,000 Norwegian nationals, 2,000 Icelandic nationals and 40 Liechtenstein nationals living in the UK, and the 15,000 UK nationals in Norway, 800 in Iceland and 60 in Liechtenstein.

EEA/EFTA citizens are covered by free movement provisions of the EEA/ EFTA states’ membership of the EEA Agreement. This allows them to currently move to the UK and other EU states, and UK citizens are currently able to move to the three EEA/EFTA states.

Officials from the EEA/EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and the UK met to discuss the agreement reached by the UK and the European Union on citizens’ rights in December 2017. Positive discussions on these issues took place at the meeting and the parties affirmed their desire to secure the status and protect the rights of UK nationals living in Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein, and nationals of those countries living in the UK.

View more IMTJ news and articles on EU cross border healthcare agreements and Brexit.