Quote Originally Posted by fountainhall View Post
Just paying the National Insurance contributions is no longer enough, thanks to changes made by the first Blair government.
Yup, as it is completely ridiculous that if you're resident in Thailand your state pension is fixed but if you're in the Philippines it isn't. I think EHIC in some form might well survive, it'll depend on the government of the day, but anyone who retires to a country abroad accepts certain risks. It's certainly a lot easier to get back to the UK from Spain and France, you don't have to fly for example. If you declare you're returning for good, you have immediate access to care on the NHS, whether or not you do actually end up staying. I don't think medical care will be the cause of droves of expats returning to the UK, many who retired to Greece for example have always said that Greek state-based medical care was worse than useless, and it certainly hasn't got any better.