Only £700 lost in health fraud Daily Mail ran scare story about

The Huffington Post reports:

The Government is accused of “stoking up a mistrust” in migrants after fraud involving Europeans charging the NHS for care outside the UK amounted to just £700, The Huffington Post UK can reveal.

An investigation by the Daily Mail [and splashed on its front page] claimed a “loophole” could be exploited allowing recent arrivals to obtain an European Health Insurance Card, issued by the NHS to British people to pay for emergency treatment on the continent.

The report cited online forums where East Europeans boasted how easy it was to charge the UK for treatments in their homeland, and argued the card could be used for a range of expenses, including a £47,000 liver transplant or “multiple pregnancies and births”.

The investigation .. led to Downing Street ordering an urgent investigation and a health minister saying the practice is “completely unacceptable”.

But in response to a Freedom of Information request made by The Huffington Post UK asking how widespread the practice was in the last five years, the Department of Health indicated cases of fraud are modest.

Officials have found just nine instances of fraud, costing the British taxpayer £712.56.