Johnson: All Migrants Must Pay for NHS on ‘Day One’ as Wait Times for Patients Soar

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that all migrants will pay for the National Health Service (NHS) on ‘day one’, as the nation’s socialised medicine system faces the longest wait times in fifteen years, and NHS staff are being gagged on social media ahead of the general election.

Boris Johnson said this week that under his Brexit plan, the government would mandate that all migrants pay an NHS surcharge of £625 before migrating to the United Kingdom, whether they use the service or not.

At present, migrants from European Union nations are exempt from paying any healthcare surcharge, and migrants from outside the EU are currently paying £400 per year.  The new plan proposed by Johnson would remove this distinction, and require all migrants to pay.

“If people return a majority Conservative government we will ensure that people who come to our great country from anywhere in the world will contribute on day one to our NHS”, Johnson told the Sunday Times.

“The British people pay huge amounts to get great NHS care, it is only fair that everyone in the UK does”, he added.

Mr Johnson also announced today, speaking at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) annual conference, that the government would scrap planned cuts to the corporation tax, in order to direct the money into propping up the struggling socialised medical system, despite prior claims from Johnson that cutting taxes would actually lead to more revenue collected, not less.

The new NHS plans from Boris Johnson come after it was revealed last week that the National Health Service is facing the longest wait times for patients in fifteen years.

The latest figures from the NHS show that 83.6% of patients were seen within four hours in October, compared to 85.2% in September, and 89.1% in October 2018.  The rate of people using the service has also jumped by 4.4% over the same month last year, totalling 2,170,510 attendees in October.

The Nuffield Trust, a leading healthcare think tank in the UK, said the figures suggest that “one of the bleakest winters in the NHS’s history” could be on the horizon.

The Society for Acute Medicine warned that the NHS system is “imploding”.

The National Health Service is set to be a key issue for voters in the upcoming general election, but reports are surfacing that staff are being gagged by bosses at the NHS, telling them not to engage in political discourse during the election.

One example of the gagging is that Health Education England (HEE) directed its staff to avoid using social media during the campaign, saying that they should avoid “online forums, communities and other public online discussions in a way that will call into question your political impartiality regarding your professional role at HEE”.

One paramedic in the North of England told The Guardian: “I feel it is shameful on our management to have gagged us from speaking out for political reasons. It’s disrespectful, frustrating and could cost lives.”

A health consultant in Blackpool said: “Being told that I cannot share my views on social media in the run-up to the election is oppressive. I feel I am being denied both my right to express myself freely and denied this opportunity to share my opinions on manifestos or party policy which the public may find valuable, given my extensive experience within the NHS.”