EEA FP and Comprehensive Sickness Insurance

[duegunn]

I am very frustrated. We have just submitted our application with 4 months of Comprehensive Sickness Insurance left with Vitality. We were told by our adviser and the insurance broker it should not be a problem. However, we wrote to Your Europe Advice and they claim that it can be grounds for refusal:

"The short answer to your query is that Comprehensive sickness insurance is required for the time frame which is envisaged that you and your wife will be staying. Given that you are both intending on staying on a permanent basis in the UK, the 4 months left on the policy may undermine the merits of your wife's application, especially in the light of a previous refusal on the same basis. There is therefore effectively a risk of another refusal.

Your question relates to the requirement for comprehensive sickness insurance laid down under EU law by virtue of Directive 2004/38 (article 7); If an EU citizen must rely on a period of residence in the UK as a student or a self sufficient person, he is required to prove that he meet the requirements for comprehensive sickness insurance (under article 7 Directive 2004/38).

If the EU citizen does not have private sickness insurance at the time he is either a student or a self sufficient person, and cannot prove that he enjoys cover for him/her such that the UK could make a claim against the health authority of that other member state for any treatment under the relevant Regulations 1408/71 or 883/04, an application for the confirmation of the right of admission/residence or permanent residence may be refused by the Home Office. This notion has been upheld by the Court of Appeal in the UK in the case of Ahmad [2014] EWCA Civ 988.

Accordingly, the UK argues that where an EU citizen is not economically active, relying on the NHS is akin to relying on public assistance; thus, the student or the inactive EU citizen must prove he is not a burden on the public purse by providing for his own private sickness insurance. The Home Office may find potential support in this argument in the recent case of Alimanovic Case 67/14. More recently, the UK has successfully defended itself before the Court of Justice in case C 308/14 handed down on the 14th June 2016. "

Can anyone comment?