NHS should be a co-pay system.

eye appointments and glasses are also not free at point of access and the NHS isn’t free - we the workforce pay for it. If we want to move to European models then we need to be taxed less and wages need to increase like other countries

You have to invest money into management to get good management. Wes Streeting cutting back office jobs contributed to there being fewer managers to manage it well. For example, the NHS can’t spend its funds wisely on supplies and services with no one in the back office to write, negotiate and oversee the contracts. The NHS can’t hire qualified staff with no one in the back office to fill vacant posts quickly.

The people who use the NHS the most wouldn’t have to pay - elderly, kids, those on benefits, etc .

It’s a shit idea. Why should working people continually have to fund others whilst the usual suspects get their paracetamol on prescription to avoid paying anything.

I have previously worked in the NHS and Civil service. Currently in another branch of the public sector. Money is wasted left, right and centre through laziness, incompentence, mismanagement and corruption. These all need fixed first before we bleed anymore money into it.

No not co- pay. We need a viable private alternative where you get better service, that is affordable.

I want flexible accessible affordable healthcare that I can fit around my job.

current I have none of that and I have suffered for the past 10 years. It is truly awful.

We already have it with people with funds going private. I feel very uncomfortable about it.

But we can't keep pumping money into a system where, today, i was having to tell the registrar dealing with my emergency referral for sky high eye pressure my medical history because she didn't even have access to the dates my cataracts were done or the medications I've been on. We wasted probably 20 minutes with her making notes on her system which should already have been there, during which time it came out that i should never, ever, have been prescribed a steroid inhaler while taking a beta blocker eye drop.

It's 2026, FFS, this level of waste and incompetenceis quite ridiculous.

Yes, the French system I have heard that instead of NICs, employees and employers pay cotisations sécurité sociale. Employees pay 20-25% of their gross wages and Employers pay 40-45% of gross salary. There is also a levy on passive income of 7.5% including pensions.

The UK NIC rates are well below this.
The French pay a lot more in taxes for their healthcare.

No sorry OP I dont think this would help at all. It will just give them more money to piss up the wall. The reason the NHS is on its knees is because of years of chronic mismanagement. No extra money put in to it will filter down to patient facing services. It'll line the pockets of unnecessary big-wigs at the top.

I'd happily co-pay of it meant being able to get an appointment. I've been trying to get a GP appointment for months.

In France all cancer treatment is 100% covered. I have never heard their system called a “co-pay” system.

Again, but you’ll get the posters like Nige who’ll say “oh but I’m just sooo happpy to pay more and more of my salary to and so should everyone else who works!”

Not sure what it would achieve apart from those of us who already pay into the system will pay again and anyone else who doesn't contribute will still get it free. What governments need to do is stop wasting tax payers money and distribute it more sensibly then maybe services like the nhs wouldn't be in such a state

The NHS has been and continues to be mismanaged. Too much dead wood, which happens in all government organisations. Billions of funds get wasted every year on ‘initiatives’ and archaic computer systems and various schemes, which never come to fruition and get abandoned halfway through because they are too cumbersome to implement. Closing down the ‘cottage’ hospitals was just one of many extraordinarily short sighted schemes as there is now no where for medical stable, but still needing rehab/ stepping stone to home, patients to go, so guess what they are now still in an acute hospital bed, this was one area of the many crass decision making exercises people getting paid £££££ chose. The issues in the NHS are far more complex than just lobbing money at the problem.

People are often shocked that Sweden is a co-pay system - however it's capped

£120 per year for healthcare (£10 per month) after this free

There are separate max amounts for drugs and dentistry

We’ve had e patience of the French, Spanish and a Scandi country’s health service and, without exception, the service and care has been top notch. To see a GP/urgent care it’s around £45, mostly same day appts. Pay for scans etc that take place same or the next day (around £300) and then treatment is subsidised. Not sure what happens if you need big operations or treatment for cancer.

A uk friend lives in Cyprus and had tests, scans on her hip in one week then waited about 6 weeks for the hip replacement. It’s about two years here, all the while mobility is reducing and pain increasing with poorer outcomes.

Why would co-pay be better or preferable to raising tax to increase funding for the NHS? How would co-pay improve the existing mismanagement?

How are you going to ensure that people who don’t have any spare income have access to healthcare?

We do already... through nic

Yes it should be and will be in time obviously.
Initially I suppose for GP appts and all dentistry. Children maybe free perhaps. In Ireland then are free till age eight.
After that age imo heavy users could buy a prepay card, like they can for prescriptions.
We would learn to prioritise healthcare expenses as we prioritise food and shelter. Maybe £40 a consultation and £200 for a prepay per year. So you'd buy a prepay if you need to go more than 5x per year.
It should not be free for people on benefits, but maybe qualifying benefits would be entitled to buy a half price pre payment card.
People pay more than that to insure a cat.

I had a hysterectomy privately. I don’t have a private healthcare plan so I had to pay the full cost (£13,000 including scans and tests beforehand). I almost died and was transferred to our local NHS hospital who saved my life and where I remained for the next month.

I will never use private healthcare again.

The countries you list spend considerably more per capita on health than the UK does. So it may well improve healthcare quality, but it will not save any money. I'm Dutch and so I'm not wedded to the NHS, but people do need to be realistic about this.

People on benefits would get it free
The high earners would be ok
would hurt people like me, min wage but earn just enough to get no help and would struggle