My wife and I are going to do a working holiday in the UK for 2 years. We will have travel insurance for an initial trip around continental Europe before we start work in the UK, but I'm not sure if there's any good reason to have insurance for the time we are in the UK, since we will be covered by the NHS.
Should we get travel insurance for our time in the UK?
We are from New Zealand.
I assume you are referring to Tier 5 Youth Mobility Scheme (or 'YMS', which replaced the old Working Holiday Maker visa a long time ago).
As part of your visa application you will have to pay an extra GBP 300 up front as the health surcharge. Each of you will have to pay separately. There is no getting around this payment and YMS visa holders do not qualify for an exemption. If you do not pay, your applications will be refused.
The health surcharge will enable you to access most (but not all) of the NHS services. Some services (e.g., mental health, pharmacy, and so on) may not be available and you would be wise to consider getting insurance for those services (or be prepared to pay). A precise and detailed enumeration of which NHS services you can access and which you cannot is out of scope for this site.
You may wish to take further questions up on the Expats site.
There is more info at Pay for UK healthcare as part of your immigration application
