To think the most shocking thing about James VDB's death is...

Anyone who is paying £80 per MONTH for prescriptions needs to look at a yearly pre payment prescription which is just over £100 per YEAR.

The US healthcare situation is inexplicable to me. How can such a rich country have such a crap system that leaves so many without cover? This is the real American exceptionalism if you ask me.

100% agree. I wonder if the people claiming the NHS is great and cannot be reviewed EVER are actually the people who are paying little in.

Lets have a cross party review and not something that takes years to look at a co payment system. Someone was talking on another thread about what would happen if someone couldnt afford paracetamol (at 35p per box). Those people are very unusual. Not having 35p? Add to that people who cannot budget, never been taught to or have a massive entitlement to get whatever free stuff they can and that might be a better explanation. When I was working in retail during Covid people were stealing the bars of soat and liquid soap. One women came in and cleared the shelf of hand staniser. Dont get me started on the toilet rolls. people were literally pinching that too. I saw the very worst behaviour.

My late Father was always looking for anything that was free and that he was entitled to despite having enough to support himself. Same with a friend's Mum. She is constantly saying why cant she have what her other elderly friend gets. You dont get it just because you are 80 plus.

Apparently 25% of people go on holiday without travel insurance. Que the Crowd Funding and sad faces when something happens. There was a chap a few months ago who got a travel insurance quote with some existing illnesses.

Decided he would take the risk as he didnt want to pay the policy cost and ended up in a coma in Turkey where they refused to let him go until his bill was paid.

Some people constantly have their hands out for handouts whilst doing very little to sort out their own lives. And yes - its not luck that people get ill and no life insurance, income protection etc. Its basic life admin

The average person in UK pays C£4,500pa towards NHS, now go look up how much a private policy would cost the average person! The NHS is not "free" amazing people think it is. It's actually not fit for pupose any longer.

I'm guessing that legalising euthanasia in the US would lead to a lot of people opting for that to avoid financial problems for their families. In the UK, certainly where I live, I think that people with cancer and other serious conditions, particularly painful ones, will be opting for euthanasia because it's impossible to get the treatment they need on the NHS, or to get it urgently enough.

The pre existing conditions thing is a bit of a red herring. If you have a population of people you will have a range of pre existing conditions and the insurer will provide insurance at a cost which takes account of that.

I’m saying that all employers should provide medical insurance - such as they do in most of Europe - and this ensures the ‘pre existing conditions’ isn’t and issue because it’s averaged out. If insurance had to be bought for one person with pre existing conditions it would be v expensive. If insurance had to be provided for 100 people and some had pre existing conditions and some don’t, the per person insurance would be much cheaper.

There is currently a petition to try and get this debated in parliament. Any support would be appreciated.

Life insurance is unaffordable for many, especially when they have young children to support. Replacing a wage with £350 for just 18 months makes life so much more difficult for the bereaved.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/752501

Farage wouldn´t need to be voted in again. He would have more money than God and done what he really wanted to do re various subjects. And it´s not "any politician", he isn´t a politician, he is a grifter. But some people like learning the hard way, so crack on.

The NHS has many faults but compared to US system it is a better option.

You are very fortunate to have employer provided medical insurance. Is it a benefit in kind? I wonder what the cost would be if you had to pay for it yourself especially with all pre existing conditions being covered.

My private healthcare (employed provided) covers all my preexisting conditions.

My mom’s sister had a $20k excess / copay on her cancer treatment (she is US based)….

Yes same here. I'm not at all sure that it is a requirement now though.

All pre-existing conditions are covered under my employer provided medical insurance. That’s fairly standard.

Absolutely the European model is much better than the US or U.K. model. My children and I have had so many bad experiences here over the past seven years that I am planing on returning before I get much older. Understand some systems aren’t what they were a few years ago but still not scraping the barrel like the U.K.

When we first took out a mortgage more than 30 years ago it was a condition that we both had to have life insurance cover. I don't know if that is still the case but I think it should be. The life cover lasted for the duration of the mortgage.

IME many people who order takeaways do so because they cannot afford to go out for an evening. Both my DDs have asked for vouchers at Xmas to spend on a takeaway meal which I was happy to give.

You are being unreasonable to use a celebrity's death in the USA and turn it into a political argument here.

A local hospital near me was declared in a critical state recently as it was overwhelmed with patients and were advising people to stay away from A and E as they couldn't cope.

It's all very well saying we need to protect the NHS at all costs but our population is too big for the NHS to cope with. Add to that an aging population and you have a ticking timebomb.

A mum who wants to keep her children in the same school with their friends and support, after watching their father fight and lose a terrible battle with cancer is not a grifter. She is a mum doing the best she can to support her children to maintain some stability. Do you think the best thing for those children right now is having to change schools? To be the new kid whose famous Dad died and have to answer a whole loaf of questions from people who don't even know them.

People are under no obligation to donate, it's totally their choice. If they can't afford to donate then they shouldn't.

Not everyone can afford life insurance and sometimes not everything is covered, especially with cheaper policies which is going to be all some people can afford.

and then sometimes it is your child that gets cancer or another serious illness. I had savings which lasted about 0.5 seconds when my child had cancer and I was let go from my job.

It may be a lot to you, but it should be prioritised before takeaways, nails, hair, streaming services, pets etc etc. loads of people prioritise these things over proper financial protection, and they’re fools.

I wonder how many young people (I include those in their 40s like my DDs and their families) can afford private insurance for health and critical illness on top of paying their mortgages or rent, tuition fee loans and basic cost of living. Neither DD ever has her nails done and only get their hair cut twice a year! Nothing to do with basic life planning if health insurance is unaffordable.

I agree that the NHS needs completely remodelling, ideally on one like the French have where they do pay into an insurance scheme. The system is also proactive e.g. women have an annual gynie checkup throughout their lives; a GP appt is same day or within 24 hours; blood test results are within 24 hours etc ...

As for Farage we can but hope voters are not so stupid as to vote Reform. But seeing how many voted for Brexit, I won't hold my breath.

This - The US model or NHS are not the only options.

I have a pre existing condition- how would these even begin to be covered under medical insurance.

Im someone who does think we need a rethink of NHS approach, European models seem to make sense.

The issue is with the NHS it is seen as free/entitled. So is open to abuse , sadly. Missed appointments, the access to it hindered by GP apt.

It’s just in fire fighting mode, impacted by wider needs elsewhere. As examples Social Care needs for the elderly - bed blockers. Or delays in accessing mental health, which often means people are at crisis point, rather that being supported properly before that point.

It needs figuring out, but politicians are nervous of even mentioning it as soon as it is it’s leveraged negatively by the other party.

All that would happen if we privatised our health system would mean the costs would go up and employers would have to pay for insurance for all their workers so costs/inflation would go up. One of the ways we are more competitive is that starting a business/ becoming freelance or moving a business here has low initial costs as you don’t have to pay health insurance for everyone.

Many Americans just go without health care and I believe if that were to happen here the chaos and costs would be greater than the cost of the NHS. No doubt the NHS is much better in some areas than others and increasing population by many millions and at the same time decreasing NHS bed capacity was a huge mistake. But I would put the work in to improve and invest rather than privatise.