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[BazaJT]

Trouble is that most people now have never known a time without a free health service[NHS is 70 today]no matter how broken it is.So ever more money is needed to keep it going,then people want more police and stronger armed forces and so on.These of course all need funding which has to come from taxation,but raise income tax and everyone starts complaining,raise fuel duty and people complain that prices/cost of living has risen-same with raising any other form of taxation-so which do you want?you pays your money and takes your choice.

[aaronjb]

If they raise my effective rate of tax much more, I may as well find a way to sign on and live off benefits

[Gaffers]

It would if people were educated to budget for it... 

It's seriously expensive though and became more so after Obamacare came in. 

2 examples that stick in my mind from my trips to the US are:


30 year old non smoking male with no pre-existing conditions - $400 a month

The young guy was an odd jobber, pools, maintenance anything he could find to make a buck, but as he was self employed had to buy his own insurance and told me that this was the cheapest most basic policy he could find.  $400 a month is a big chunk of his take home ((before tax!) 

Late 50's non smoking couple, again with no pre-existing conditions - $5000  a month.

The couple were very wealthy, ran their own company and this was the best all singing, all dancing policy.  I guess they could have been on the company's scheme, but chose to buy their own.  Which probably tells you something about the quality of workplace health insurance schemes in the US which most people rely on for their family's healthcare needs! 

.. and, if you have a "pre-existing condition", you're shit out of luck.

Insurance companies are satan's spawn itself. I sure as hell hope I never have to rely on one for my health.

I must admit that element does worry me a bit, but apparently the wife's insurance company are willing to take me on their policy for no extra charge than if I didn't have a chronic illness

[Bigron]

Trouble is that most people now have never known a time without a free health service[NHS is 70 today]no matter how broken it is.So ever more money is needed to keep it going,then people want more police and stronger armed forces and so on.These of course all need funding which has to come from taxation,but raise income tax and everyone starts complaining,raise fuel duty and people complain that prices/cost of living has risen-same with raising any other form of taxation-so which do you want?you pays your money and takes your choice.

Free only at the point of consumption, Baza: I have paid heavily all my working life and I am now seeing a little of my money back.
Where it goes wrong is having to treat the "health tourists", who have never made any contributions and fly in, get treated and fly out again.
I have been in enough NHS waiting rooms to vouch for the truth of that....

Ron.

[Kevin Wood]

Free only at the point of consumption, Baza: I have paid heavily all my working life and I am now seeing a little of my money back.

That's the whole point of a collective service. The lucky ones like you and I (touch wood) pay in more than they get out, in order to live in a society where those less fortunate get expensive treatment for some of the awful conditions they have to endure rather than getting told it's a "pre-existing condition" and therefore not insurable.

I agree that there is massive waste in the NHS, which nobody has the gonads to tackle, but I don't like the alternatives at all.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

I heard Jeremy the Hunt say on TV today that the NHS needs more staff. Around 10 years ago it employed around 1.2 million people.
Today it employs around 1.5 million people. How many people do they think it needs ffs ?
It is a bottomless money pit which can never be filled.
Imo, the only answer is to start again from scratch, with a clean sheet of paper and no vested interests, other than patients, taken into account.
The lovefest re the NHS all over the media this week is stomach churning. 

[Bigron]

Kevin, I am with you completely as regards your first paragraph; like any insurance, you hope not to need to collect on it but it covers what you can't afford to pay for by yourself when you do need it.
My complaint was concerning the freeloaders who have never paid a penny into the scheme but milk it anyway - the "health tourists".

Ron.

[STEMO]

I heard Jeremy the Hunt say on TV today that the NHS needs more staff. Around 10 years ago it employed around 1.2 million people.
Today it employs around 1.5 million people. How many people do they think it needs ffs ?
It is a bottomless money pit which can never be filled.
Imo, the only answer is to start again from scratch, with a clean sheet of paper and no vested interests, other than patients, taken into account.
The lovefest re the NHS all over the media this week is stomach churning.

It certainly is. All the joy and love over what is, basically, a failing service. NHS staff, on the other hand, deserve all the credit in the world.*


*Except the murderers and managers.

[BazaJT]

Poorly worded on my part[re-free service]Bigron,but most will see it as free I think.Agree totally with you with regards to health tourists.

[Bigron]

We are on the same page here, Baza.
Despite the negative comments regarding the NHS, on here and elsewhere, I am eternally grateful fot the treatments I have received. I would have been dead years ago but for what they did/are doing for me. Bless them. 

Ron.

[BazaJT]

Must admit I couldn't fault the treatment/care that Scunny General gave Maureen during her [sadly all too regular]stays there and when she had her first two strokes they were brilliant,sdaly with her third stroke there was no hope of doing anything much for her,but that was in no way a fault of the staff.

[Doctor Gollum]

I must admit that I am not overly convinced...

If you have a decent local surgery and a good local hospital then they will see you right...

If either is missing, then you might as well go private... either via insurance or cash... Or not bother

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

My local hospital is the infamous Colchester General. It should be bulldozed with at least half the staff locked inside.
If Im ever in need of emergency care and am conscious, I will insist on being taken to Chelmsford.
Im so grateful for my private healthcare provided by my employer.

[Kevin Wood]

My local hospital is the infamous Colchester General. It should be bulldozed with at least half the staff locked inside.
If Im ever in need of emergency care and am conscious, I will insist on being taken to Chelmsford.
Im so grateful for my private healthcare provided by my employer.

They patched me up OK then I fell off my bicycle in the early '90's.

It's possible I'd had one too many at the time.

I also agree on health tourists, but in a country that voted not to have ID cards, I don't see how the NHS can turn people away as it has no means to prove entitlement or otherwise.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

It has changed a lot, for the worse since then Kevin.