Well Rory , a few questions there mate, main answer to one is if you have moved to the Philippines you may not be able to come back to the uk for health reasons , about paying in for those 7 years have you checked how many years you have paid in already , you may have paid enough to claim a full state pension so you will be wasting your money paying in for nothing .
I took early retirement 5 years ago but I had paid in the system for over 40 years so I get the full state pension next month , but then I am reducing my private pension that I have be using for those years because of paying to much tax .
A big thing you have to think about the state pension and paying in that extra money , there is no guarantee you will be alive to receive it and you cannot give it to your partner or family
About living out there and going with the flow about health , if you have enough cash and credit then use that , I was looking at health insurance and it was a crazy price which to me was just something I could not afford paying for just incase , but if you are thinking off say a year out there and back here for a holiday then look at back packers insurance each year ,that worked out just over £1200 a year when I was looking