The right thing to do
There's a word we're starting to associate with this government and that word is 'free'.
Free prescriptions, free bus passes, free breakfasts, free car parking in hospitals. But don't be fooled by the latest decision taken by the One Wales Government and more particularly, the Health Minister, Edwina Hart.
It may contain the word 'free' but it doesn't belong to that growing list of freebies.
It's a decision, taken quietly and not announced loudly, to give failed asylum seekers access in Wales to free NHS treatment.
Asylum seekers have access to free treatment on the NHS in England and Wales. The same goes for failed asylum seekers who are appealing against the decision of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Office. But until now free healthcare has been cut off for failed asylum seekers who've been told they cannot stay in the country. If there's any delay in returning or sending them home and they need healthcare, they get it. But then if the Trust thinks it's reasonable, it sends in the debt collectors.
Now Edwina Hart has decided that's wrong. Why? Because "the mark of a civlised society is the way in which it treats all of its people, particularly the sick and dying".
Put simply "because she believes it is the right thing to do".
So if that's the 'right' thing to do, what are they doing in England?
Last month a test case at the High Court led to a judgement that it was unlawful to refuse free NHS treatment to all asylum seekers as a matter of course. The judge, Mr Justice Mitting decided there were circumstances in which a FAS - a Failed Asylum Seeker - could meet the criteria that would give him or her access to free healthcare. So no more saying 'no' to everyone. FASs are no longer "automatically chargable" to use NHS language.
But Mr Justice Mitting gave the UK government the right to appeal against that decision and last Tuesday, May 13th, they lodged that appeal in an attempt to overturn his judgement.
Why?
Because as a Department of Health spokesperson explained today ".. given the significance of the judgement and its potential wider implications, this is the right thing to do".
Taking a different line to the UK government on scrapping car parking charges is one thing. Telling them that while they want to stick to a system where failed asylum seekers are refused free healthcare, you are going ahead and giving them that free care because you believe 'it's the right thing to do' is quite another.
Because morally speaking, they can't both be right, can they?
UPDATE: Lots of views coming in .
I'm Betsan Powys, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Wales' political editor. I'll be blogging the inside track on .
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