£10 charge to visit A&E?

[geosname]

There are even more UK born people who havent paid anything in.

 

I think its time to consign the NHS to the dustbin of history, an enormously expensive, failed, social experiment.

 

If it is as good as everyone seems to think why doesnt any other country have one?

 

They do... they have one here

[Tone]

There are even more UK born people who havent paid anything in.

 

I think its time to consign the NHS to the dustbin of history, an enormously expensive, failed, social experiment.

 

If it is as good as everyone seems to think why doesnt any other country have one?

 

Canada has one and, guess what? The end result is the same. A lot of Canadians cross the border into the US to get treatment without waiting. That may not continue, unless we get rid of Obama's ridiculous "Affordable" Care Act.

[cheshirevaliant]

Canada has one and, guess what? The end result is the same. A lot of Canadians cross the border into the US to get treatment without waiting. That may not continue, unless we get rid of Obama's ridiculous "Affordable" Care Act.

 

You can do that here if you pay for it.

[Tone]

You can do that here if you pay for it.

 

If you have any money left over, after you've paid your taxes?

[JOHNNYAITCH]

There are even more UK born people who havent paid anything in.

 

I think its time to consign the NHS to the dustbin of history, an enormously expensive, failed, social experiment.

 

If it is as good as everyone seems to think why doesnt any other country have one?

 

Many do but might not be quite the same in terms of scope and funding..but the aim is the same

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/heres-a-map-of-the-countries-that-provide-universal-health-care-americas-still-not-on-it/259153/

[JOHNNYAITCH]

At one time the NHS was "The envy of the world" but like a lot of things in our country it is being abused,triggered by smoking,drinking,obesity,cosmetic surgery,fertility problems,etc,etc.These were never envisioned at the time of the birth of the NHS.

Cutbacks on elderly care as also had a major impact with 25% of all beds being taken up by pensioners.Labour's decision to give GP's new contracts as also put extreme pressure on A&E departments.

 

Indeed the scope increase and the lack of attention to prevention that it has inadvertantly ecnouraged are to it's detriment in some ways

 

Still something to be hugely proud of and to cherish

[JOHNNYAITCH]

There are even more UK born people who havent paid anything in.

 

I think its time to consign the NHS to the dustbin of history, an enormously expensive, failed, social experiment.

 

If it is as good as everyone seems to think why doesnt any other country have one?

 

I wouldn't say it has failed..enormously expensive yes, but it has for decades provided effective and in millions of cases life saving treatment that was free at the point of need...so by what criteria has it failed?

[Tone]

I wouldn't say it has failed..enormously expensive yes, but it has for decades provided effective and in millions of cases life saving treatment that was free at the point of need...so by what criteria has it failed?

 

Doctors provide the "life saving treatment" not the system. Most babies are delivered by doctors on time. Most broken bones are probably set and put in plaster fairly quickly. But just consider Boomer's wait for therapy after his stroke. That treatment should be commenced quickly, not be subject to a waiting list.

 

And on another subject, my 90 year old mother's carers were told the other day, after the repeat ECG they carried out, that " there are still slight irregularities which is expected for a person of [her] age". In other words, she's old and we're too busy dealing with people much younger, and we can't even be bothered to tell you exactly what "irregularities" means.

 

I have a lot of time for the good people who work in the NHS, but irrespective of their own loyalty, the system is broken.

[Andyregs]

Our health service is not a free for all. It was created for the hard working UK British tax payer. Not for the rest of Europe not for the rest of the world, people who do not pay anything into the system.

 

Our social care structure is all but collapsed, there are no beds. This leads to an inefficiency where people are wrongly given shortcut treatments and sent home, possibly to incur further bad health and even in some cases, Death.

 

Our Health service cannot cope our housing schemes cannot cope, and our schools cannot cope, and if the schools try to cope this leads to inefficiencies in young peoples education.

 

This is another great reason to leave Europe free our borders and introduce that migrants pay into a private health scheme and are not allowed free treatment that we are all privileged as UK citizens to obtain. We pay into it, and we are entitled to be seen, in good time and within a reasonable level of care.

 

There is not enough social care available for elderly patients, our beds are full, it is time for a reversal. Labour say there are inefficiencies but are not willing to challenge what the underlying problems really are. UKIP's time has come.

 

UKIP can't even make up their mind about the NHS and keep changing their stance depending on what they need to say at the time to win votes. If UKIP ever got into power they would rip themselves in two trying to be everything to everybody. Cant take their stance on the NHS seriously.

[Andyregs]

If you have any money left over, after you've paid your taxes?

 

If the average Uk Salary is £25,000, then the average person contributes about £1000 towards the NHS. Considering a broken leg costs about £3000 to treat, and certain cancer drugs cost £20,000-30,000 per person, then I wouldn't call it an obscene amount, and its nice to know that should anything happen and I can no longer work, there is still the NHS there if I fall ill. And someone else would be contributing to my well being, just as I am now contributing to someone else's. I'd argue it was the neighbourly thing to do (Luke 10:29-37).

Oh and carllll....that average person would also be paying about £28 towards the EU.

[Tone]

If the average Uk Salary is £25,000, then the average person contributes about £1000 towards the NHS. Considering a broken leg costs about £3000 to treat, and certain cancer drugs cost £20,000-30,000 per person, then I wouldn't call it an obscene amount, and its nice to know that should anything happen and I can no longer work, there is still the NHS there if I fall ill. And someone else would be contributing to my well being, just as I am now contributing to someone else's. I'd argue it was the neighbourly thing to do (Luke 10:29-37).

Oh and carllll....that average person would also be paying about £28 towards the EU.

 

It's not quite as simple as that, is it?

 

We pay roughly $4,500 a year for health insurance and, on top of that, a maximum of $2,000 each in what is called "co-pay" (what you would call an "excess") per year. So in rough terms we pay the equivalent of about £2,800 maximum, each, per year, whatever treatment we receive. My missus just had surgery for kidney stones which would have cost $15,000 if we paid for it out of our pockets. She had a total of 3 similar procedures last year. That worked well for us.

 

But what about those without insurance, you might ask? Well we have "public hospitals" that accept those people with little or no charge. You see, the US is well known for being "neighbourly". :-)

 

There's a lot that could be improved in the US healthcare system, but I can tell you where I would rather be sick.

[cheshirevaliant]

It's not quite as simple as that, is it?

 

We pay roughly $4,500 a year for health insurance and, on top of that, a maximum of $2,000 each in what is called "co-pay" (what you would call an "excess") per year. So in rough terms we pay the equivalent of about £2,800 maximum, each, per year, whatever treatment we receive. My missus just had surgery for kidney stones which would have cost $15,000 if we paid for it out of our pockets. She had a total of 3 similar procedures last year. That worked well for us.

 

But what about those without insurance, you might ask? Well we have "public hospitals" that accept those people with little or no charge. You see, the US is well known for being "neighbourly". :-)

 

There's a lot that could be improved in the US healthcare system, but I can tell you where I would rather be sick.

 

What are public hospitals like, Tone? Is there much of a wait to be seen? Do you have access to the best doctors? I'm not stirring, I genuinely don't know much about them.

[Tone]

What are public hospitals like, Tone? Is there much of a wait to be seen? Do you have access to the best doctors? I'm not stirring, I genuinely don't know much about them.

 

Neither did I until I came to live here. They are comparable, in my opinion and my limited knowledge, to many NHS hospitals in the UK. You do have to wait to be seen. Interestingly, the biggest public hospital in Dallas is Parkland, which is where JFK was taken in 1963. It has had $1.27 billion spent on new buildings, which are scheduled to be complete this year. That compares pretty well with UHNS or whatever it's called, is that fair?

[cheshirevaliant]

Neither did I until I came to live here. They are comparable, in my opinion and my limited knowledge, to many NHS hospitals in the UK. You do have to wait to be seen. Interestingly, the biggest public hospital in Dallas is Parkland, which is where JFK was taken in 1963. It has had $1.27 billion spent on new buildings, which are scheduled to be complete this year. That compares pretty well with UHNS or whatever it's called, is that fair?

 

Cheers, interesting stuff. In terms of cost of the work at UHNS, I'm not best placed to comment. One thing I will say for it however is how impressed I was with both the facilities and the nursing care when I was there visiting family reasonably frequently throughout the second half of last year. Ditto whenever I have had any dealings at my local hospital in Macclesfield. Whilst I cannot rank it against other countries (touch wood, I've never needed medical treatment on my travels), it is still a long way from being a broken system in my experience.

[Andyregs]

It's not quite as simple as that, is it?

 

We pay roughly $4,500 a year for health insurance and, on top of that, a maximum of $2,000 each in what is called "co-pay" (what you would call an "excess") per year. So in rough terms we pay the equivalent of about £2,800 maximum, each, per year, whatever treatment we receive. My missus just had surgery for kidney stones which would have cost $15,000 if we paid for it out of our pockets. She had a total of 3 similar procedures last year. That worked well for us.

 

But what about those without insurance, you might ask? Well we have "public hospitals" that accept those people with little or no charge. You see, the US is well known for being "neighbourly". :-)

 

There's a lot that could be improved in the US healthcare system, but I can tell you where I would rather be sick.

 

Not quite sure what your point is. I said that the tax burden for what we receive isn't excessively large.