If you can afford to pay for an NHS Treatment you should

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Or at least consider it. My friend was forever moaning about her MIL (hip) op being canx and saying it wasnt fair and complaining about the NHS. I know the MIL has 4 children all comfortably off - not rich by any means. It did make me think why don't you all club together and go private. If you've got the means then why not?

But would people do it voluntarily? Probably not! Montys - some would, some wouldn't.

Those who believe that the State and everyone else owes them a living and that they are victims will pay nothing and do nothing to improve either the NHS or their own health. Those who are already do contribute, volunteer, take are of themselves - they will donate.

The only response required is that we already pay for healthcare. If my tax and NI is sufficiently reduced to allow me to afford to pay into a private healthcare scheme then sure, i'll have treatment privately.

Sorry "take care of"

We've already paid for the NHS. I wouldn't personally mind paying more for it but I think we all should. I like the idea of an extra VAT for the NHS. That way everyone pays.

It depends on your circs.
I don't think people should be 'made' to pay for private treatment, but if they want to, that's fine.

Some operations are around the cost of a nice cruise- I think the hip op is around £10K- inclusive- (all private hospitals have fees on their websites).
I know plenty of retired people who have a pension of maybe £70 in 2 personal pensions and 2 state pensions, and could afford that. I could afford it and would pay if it was a choice between paying or waiting for months when in pain.

lol that should be a combined pension of £70K.

I just think the NHS is hugely inefficient. I'm not talking about hardworking front line medics, but the overall inefficiency.
On a personal level, I've seen letters to people I know being duplicated, money wasted on stationery and postage, notes gone missing, and really basic things like that.
Personally, Id like to see 'timewasters' at A&E charged a fee such as £50 for a visit if their condition wasn't urgent and could have waited for a GP in a week or two. Some hospitals have started having a GP at the door of A&E to turn people away if necessary.

Trouble is Polly that charging people is difficult to enforce, especially after the event. Might put off deserving patients though.

If you start thinking like that the NHS will end up means tested which goes against the grain of why it was set up. What the NHS needs is properr funding so that waiting lists etc are shorter, not those who can afford it going private.

What would be next-education?

Having said that, some people going private takes people off the NHS waiting list, so in that way, it's positive.

Actually, if you can afford private healthcare, nobody is barring you to do so

Start with basics, stop all health tourists

Yeah I think if you can afford to go private and it's available then you should
Not everything is available - my 9 year needs a hearing test but no one wants to do it because he's a child and I've been told to take him to the gp for nhs referral

We're a British Expat family living oversees and the company cover us with full Health Insurance whist overseas. Twice in the last couple of years we have had to go to A&E whilst back in the UK. We sat there feeling guilty because we could have paid for treatment but there was no provision at either hospital for them to take payment from us. And we did try! On the other side of the coin any hospital that we have attended in the various countries that we have lived in across the world, have always demanded credit card or insurance details before treatment. Go figure!

Also you can always donate if you are so wealthy and feel guily accepting 'free' provision.
Also public healthcare doesn't provide neccessery things either. Cancer patients or rare condition sufferers still need to host fundraisers and apply to private donors for lifesaving treatments.

I have health insurance as I don't want to take up a space someone who can't afford it needs
You are nothing without good health. It is easily worth the monthly payment.

People on a low income simply will NOT be able to afford to put something away for their old age. Many ppl on low incomes are struggling to pay for food and heat.
And renting from private landlords and HAs. When they retire or at least have to start winding their hours down due to getting older they will struggle to pay their rent and its quite feasible that there will be homeless pensioners on the streets who will swiftly become ill (if they arent already) and end up in hospital.
You think obesity is the problem?

You aint seen nothing yet!

Yes BadKnee there is already discrimination against conditions that disproportionally affect women.

www.physiopod.co.uk/claires-story-a-single-mum-struggling-with-lipoedema.shtml

HelenaDove - I am using discrimination in the original sense - ie to choose, to select.

So yes you may be right about women (although fewer men tend to go to their GPs for early treatment), but unless we treat everything immediately, and we can't, every time someone gets seen ahead of someone else or someone pays and someone doesn't we are making a choice. We use a range of criteria.

Postcodes, money, those who look after themselves, those who manage their own conditions, those who push hardest etc. All of these are factors that the NHS looks at when deciding who gets treatment. I am not trying to say that a specific group is "discriminated against" .

Previously worked for many years in the NHS, mostly in GP surgeries. The number of patients who just don't turn up to their appointment is obscene. The number of patients who order every single drug on their repeat prescription sheet every month (when not needed) is also ridiculous. So much NHS money gets wasted just on these two areas. I think a £5-£10 charge for adults to see a GP (money to go to central NHS funds rather than to the practice) or hospital consultant is not unreasonable, would help stop the 'did not attend' culture and hopefully make people think twice about wasting appointments.
OP, I don't think you are unreasonable in suggesting those who can afford it should pay for their treatment. The NHS is dying on its arse. Why shouldn't those who can afford it ease the burden a bit?

In Ireland we have a two tier system.
People are entitled to free health care if they earn less than 36€K and have to wait for treatment in a public hospital. They have free GP visits and free scripts. Everyone over 70 has free GP visits, but further treatment is means tested / paid for by insurance.

If you have no health insurance and earn more than 35€K you have to settle your account yourself in full before you leave the hospital/ GP surgery for all treatment and accommodation costs.

And if you earn more than 36€K you have health insurance to cover 75% of the costs in the private or public clinic, but pay about 1€K a year premium.

The treatment is the same in public or private clinics and doctors see patients in both place. Doctors in Ireland earn hundreds of thousands a year, and it's very difficult to get into medical school here, and consultant jobs are difficult to get unless you've been through the Irish education and medical system.

Pregnant women are treated under the mother and child scheme where all services are offered free in the public area of the maternity or the maternity wing of the general hospital. If you want a particular obstetrician, you pay about 3€K, plus accommodation costs, or have health insurance. Community midwife schemes are free, but its strict to be accepted onto this home birth scheme.

Dental care is separate, but if you're on 36€K or less there are public dental clinics with waiting lists and an enmergency hospital. Dental insurance is available, but you are entitled to one visit every two years and a hygienist visit once every two years if you have paid your pay related social insurance. Pregnant women are entitled to a free dental check up, regardless of their means.

Orthodontics are available but privately paid for unless you are assessed to need them as a child, and then there are only fixed appliances available with long waiting lists. No adult orthodontist treatment is offered free.

It works ok until there are a lot of people sick at the same time and there is a Norovirus. There were 350 people waiting on trollies in AnE in Ireland last week.

Mostly everyone has a GP and people don't go to the AnE instead, as you can walk in with 60€ and be seen, or wait and be seen that day.

I cannot see how the NHS can survive post brexit, unless it makes health insurance obligatory for those who earn more than the minimum industrial wage, and free treatment is strictly means tested.

I know lots of people who have had private hip replacements, my mother did 17 years ago. She had it done at a hospital in Surrey which specialised in them. Not as physically convenient as the local NHS or private hospital but it was quite a bit cheaper.

Expecting rich (or even moderately well off) people to pay for their own treatment will harm the NHS in the long term. People will resent effectively paying twice for health provision and start to see it as a charity. Without public support it could wither and die which is a terrifying thought.

And the problem isn't the fat people or the smokers or the ill people in general it's the underfunding, both of the NHS and the other public services which interact with it.