Anyonehad an operation/hospital admittance in the Uk recently?

Had a couple of lumps removed from my arm last month, in-out and no money involved there really. It's not free, you're paying through taxes.
 
realBabelfish said:
considering many men already dont go in for treatment/checkups they should have i dont think this is a great idea. i dont think ive even seen a dr for well over a year.

if they want to charge me i will be expecting a nice reduction in my NI since im certainly not getting value for money at the moment. but i dont mind NI as im sure one day i will need their help.

i could maybe go for the idea of hypochondriacs being forced to pay. and idiots who go to the drs with a cold etc. i think people who do dangerous activities could also maybe have some form of insurance for the costs. quite annoying as a smoker im taxed to **** for any problems i might have yet idiots crashing trials bikes etc arent charged extra.

they are mulling over charging us to see a Dr now. of course privatising always works well for everyone. look at how energy and train prices etc have plummeted since they were privatised :rolleyes:
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I just gave a brief summary, not a detailed process. Like in most countries with privatized health care preventative treatments and annual/biannual checkups are free as a way of catching illness early and reducing costs.

E.g., in the US everyone with insurance goes and sees their doctor at least once a year for an annual checkup, women will see their primary care physician + gyno etc.

This is one of the misconceptions you are spreading, that privatized health care means people don't go to the doctors when the need to. In actual fact the opposite happens. The UK is, as you pointed out, terrible for people getting annual checkups, in the other counties it is just a normal part of life despite no free at source health care!


And yes, the idea of making a co-pay charge would mean a reduction in NI or income tax or at least helping spending the money in things like education and infrastructure. The aim is to make people aware of the costs of healthcare and try to get people to reduce their liability. Eat healthier, do gentle exercise, take safety precautions whenever possible, don't take needles risks, dress sensibly, lead healthier lives, go for annual checkups to catch illnesses early before it gets expensive.

It also opens up the door for people to buy supplementary health insurance if they, for example, partake in high risk sports. E.g., I do a ton of fairly hardcore skiing so I am at a high risk of wrecking my knees or worse. Only makes sense that I get burdened with some of that cost risk and have the option of insuring myself to cover costs in an emergency. Then again there are people that live extremely unhealthy lifestyles that lead to very expensive health costs, it is only fair if those people are made aware of their costs and have an incentive to try to mitigate the costs.
But what I am suggesting is not a big change. Simply those people that can afford it are subjected to a small portion of their health costs each year in return for lower taxes. Simply making people aware of how much it costs to treat them for something that could have easily been prevented will go some way to reduce NHS costs.
 
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The NHS was created out of the ideal that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth. When it was launched in 1948, it was based on three core principles:

That it meet the needs of everyone
That it be free at the point of delivery
That it be based on clinical need, not ability to pay.

I'm not sure that way back then they realised just quite how much the costs would grow or the range of illness/disease they would eventually treating.

Of course it absolutely is not free but the majority of us pay into it willingly in the hope that we will never need it. Life isn't fair so some need it more than others with life long illnesses like M.S, M.N, and the tidal wave of diabetes and obesity we are about to see over the coming decades. Thing is illness doesn't respect class or income. We are very lucky that the thought of how much will this cost doesn't even get asked should your child contract meningitis or get hit by a car. The option for those who have the money to pay is there in private medicine and clinics, though for the biggest part they choose to spend it on botox and bigger boobs and cellulite not cancer treatment.

I'd like to see the NHS get better at what it does and keep a tighter grip on it's purse strings and force people to take more responsibility for their own health, but levying a charge on the sickest that seems to go against it's founding principals. I think in the future it will have to be far more pro-active in prevention from a young age.

On personal basis I can't thank the NHS enough. They've cared for me through two heart attacks, a bypass, angio-plasti and I've lost count of the number of heart scans I've had over the years. Including the Myocardial Perfusion scan I had this morning so I'm still radio-active as I type (wouldn't like to guess how much that cost) no doubt it would be beyond my means so I'm very grateful and don't take it for granted.
 
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Hyburnate said:
But we pay for them anyway? If our taxes didn't go towards them and the taxes stayed in our pockets we could afford our own healthcare if we didn't spend the tax money...
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Rubbish - the contribution we each make is smaller than the premiums the average American pays for healthcare.
 
Was in for two nights last year for kidney stones. Never got charged a thing. Two old geezers I shared a room with insisted I should tell the nurse I'm unemployed and get my medication for free when I leave. Lie to save myself £14. Amazing what cheap scumbags some people are. Here we are lying in a lovely hospital next to Hampstead Heath, food was surprisingly good and a great selection. Nurses and doctors attentive and can't do enough for you, yet some people want more.
 
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