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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To say the NHS should be privatised?

702 replies

Cheekypeach · 18/02/2022 18:34

Preferably only partially, but still. I was talking about this with DH yesterday who is adamant it should stay as it is. I said I don’t think it can survive in its current form, and I for one would rather pay more and receive a better quality service. AIBU?

OP posts:
GreenLunchBox · 18/02/2022 21:07

@DrBlackbird

If anyone thinks that the UK is going to / able to replicate a health care service from another country like Switzerland needs to think again. For God’s sake look at what just happened with PPE contracts and inadequate health care supplies. Please do not assume that you will ever get what you see - or think that you see - elsewhere. The NHS is a fantastic service that has coped amazingly well during a tragic epidemic. Despite being underfunded for a decade. Rather than wishing in an insurance system, vote for a political party that will properly fund it.
This, this and THIS
raspberryjamchicken · 18/02/2022 21:07

@Cheekypeach

Now I’ve answered a question, does anyone want to tell me why a French or Swiss style system wouldn’t be better..?
Well the French and Swiss govereme TS spend more per capita on healthcare than the UK government. We won't get a comparable healthcare system, privatised or not, if we don't spend the same amount. I don't see a Conservative government increasing their contribution per capita.
raspberryjamchicken · 18/02/2022 21:07

French and Swiss governments that should say.

GreenLunchBox · 18/02/2022 21:07

[quote Kendodd]If I’m honest, I’m considering it. The care my family receives at the moment is abysmal

Have you priced it up? I've included a link to costs below.
If I were you I would go for pay as you go rather than insurance. I have private health insurance through work and tbh its shit. It's so bureaucratic with loads of hoops to jump through to get treatment.

Just pay for a private gp and diabetics treatments, then you don't have to worry about the NHS and you have your wished for private healthcare.

www.diabetes.co.uk/private-healthcare/cost-of-private-healthcare-with-diabetes.html[/quote]
Why is everyone humouring her? Can she fuck afford it on her low wage

Original poster
Cheekypeach · 18/02/2022 21:08

Now you’re all answering the question as if the Tories are the only government we will ever have and therefore a French system is impossible Hmm

Let’s say the tories have fucked off in 15 years and Labour are in, could we have a French system then?

OP posts:
Wheresmywoolyjumpers · 18/02/2022 21:08

I worked in health care in America. Being ill is the number one reason for debt and bankruptcy. Employers get away with murder because people are terrified to move because they will lose their health insurance (or wont be covered for pre existing conditions by their new employers insurance). And hospitals have to rota because so many people only have access to health care through A&E. The other fun thing is people who cant afford their medication because it is not covered for some reason and the USA pays more for medication than any other country. And dont even start on dental. So, people who feel they would 'pay a bit more' are woefully ill informed. There is enough money being bled out of the NHS but successive Tory governments who set it up so contracts have to be given to private contractors who then cherry pick the easiest cases and leave the difficult ones (or the ones they screw up) to the NHS. I despair that people can hold this kind of view.

LolaSmiles · 18/02/2022 21:09

The NHS is being deliberately underfunded in order to justify selling it off.

It doesn't need privatising. It needs funding and staffing properly.

AchillesPoirot · 18/02/2022 21:09

Post my surgery I was out in suboptimal dressings.

The surgeon nicked me the top of the range ones out of the nhs and put them on me on day 3. When I was still bleeding from my wound and it was getting infected.

The private hospital didn’t have the best dressings for my post operative period.

Carbiesdreamhouse · 18/02/2022 21:11

@LightsoftheNorth I just mean that the Tories won't go for a potentially fair and useful system, they'll go for one where their mates earn as much as possible. So people saying "we don't necessarily need the US system" are a bit naive.

raspberryjamchicken · 18/02/2022 21:11

@Cheekypeach

Now you’re all answering the question as if the Tories are the only government we will ever have and therefore a French system is impossible Hmm

Let’s say the tories have fucked off in 15 years and Labour are in, could we have a French system then?

If voters can be persuaded to pay more taxes, yes. Personally I would happily pay more tax for better healthcare and public services. This is not generally a vote-winning strategy in the UK unfortunately.
Susu49 · 18/02/2022 21:11

Well I have some experience of the French healthcare system and trust me, you are just as likely to encounter failures or oversights in treatment as you are in the UK system.

(That isn't to say it isn't better in some areas, post partum health for example, although that is down to a cultural difference in the importance people place on women's health and not the structure of the health system) .

In the UK, people are also quick to mistake 'bells and whistles' for better care. Hotel-style lighting, better menu choice, private rooms etc don't make for better healthcare. However we think of these things as luxuries so we have an impression of private healthcare as providing everything NHS does, but prettier.

The reality couldn't be further from the truth.

Private healthcare only works for those of enormous wealth, the 1% who don't need insurance to pay for it.

vodkaredbullgirl · 18/02/2022 21:14

No way, we are not America.

Original poster
Cheekypeach · 18/02/2022 21:14

@vodkaredbullgirl

No way, we are not America.
😂
OP posts:
Darbs76 · 18/02/2022 21:14

I’m in a lot of health groups with many Americans. What happens is they lose their jobs when they get a chronic illness which means they cannot work; and they lose their health insurance. Yes they get seen quickly over there but when your access to health care is based on how much you earn it’s really not the better option. The state funded assistance doesn’t cover a lot of stuff, can’t do out of state which is rubbish when your condition isn’t common so not a massive amount of specialists in your state. I know someone who had an infected tube in their stomach for weeks as they couldn’t afford to go to the ER. Spend some time in health groups and then say it’s the best option.

Ellmau · 18/02/2022 21:14

Well a bill for maternity services would be a good start, as it’s not an ‘illness’ per se and more of a life choice.

But your suggestion of £300 would be a drop in the water and effectively pointless.

I know someone who had a baby in a private hospital. It didn't cost her £300. It cost her £20,000. And that was about 10 years ago. Although admittedly, I don't think it was an entirely straightforward case, you'd definitely be looking at 5-10K for a basic birth.

Sorry, but I think you're being highly unrealistic about the costs.

And cancer drugs are incredibly expensive. Would you be happy to sell your home if you, your H, your DC or a parent was diagnosed with cancer?

Susu49 · 18/02/2022 21:14

@Cheekypeach

Now you’re all answering the question as if the Tories are the only government we will ever have and therefore a French system is impossible Hmm

Let’s say the tories have fucked off in 15 years and Labour are in, could we have a French system then?

Well hopefully they won't be.

Their term in office, however, is proving beyond doubt how quick they are to dismantle progressive policies which benefit the people and not their bank accounts.

If we reform the NHS to introduce some form of private health care system that isn't the US one, then you also need to enshrine it in law in such a way that it can't be altered easily to mirror the US one.

Do you trust future Tory governments not to do this? Because I don't.

AchillesPoirot · 18/02/2022 21:15

I work with Americans. What they have to pay in co-pay and the arguing they have to do to get their bills paid is horrendous.

Original poster
Cheekypeach · 18/02/2022 21:15

Hotel-style lighting, better menu choice, private rooms etc don't make for better healthcare.

You would think it does given the complaints about maternity wards on here.

And to be fair, rest and well-being is conducive to health. A&Es are like scary drug addicts asylums at the moment.

OP posts:
mrsbyers · 18/02/2022 21:16

If I’d had to pay privately for the care I’ve received I doubt I would still own my own home. I’ve been cared for for chronic illness for 20 years and the care I received during most recent surgery is the best I’ve ever had from local nhs services I just had to wait a long time for the operation

Original poster
Cheekypeach · 18/02/2022 21:16

Just to make it crystal clear I did not vote for the Tories, will never vote for the Tories, and would not trust them with a used tissue let alone the NHS. I do not want to see them enact my vision in any way, shape or form. They are scum to me.

OP posts:
lifesnotaspectatorsport · 18/02/2022 21:17

@Cheekypeach I agree you asked the wrong question. Better one might be: is the NHS as it currently stands the best way to deliver universal healthcare (including free healthcare for anyone who can't afford to pay)?

I hate the way the NHS is a sacred cow which can never ever be discussed or challenged. We should be looking to the rest of the world to see what are the best models out there. Needless to say, US system would NOT be on the list. So let's just stop frothing about it already Hmm

I do however think it's a valid question as to whether the Tories could in any way be trusted to carry out a review like this. I'd like to see an independent commission put forward options and recommendations for a proper, informed debate. Not likely alas because ... sacred cow.

BreakingUpWithMyPhone · 18/02/2022 21:17

@spudjulia

YABVU. What the NHS needs is proper funding, not becoming run for profit.
This.

Fine, pay more taxes, and vote in a political party that actually care about the NHS.

AchillesPoirot · 18/02/2022 21:17

A&Es are like scary drug addicts asylums at the moment.

When were you last in an A&E? I’ve been in 3 since Christmas Day. That is not at all my experience at all.

Also your use of the word asylums to describe drug addicts places for treatment (?) is offensive.

Susu49 · 18/02/2022 21:18

@Cheekypeach

Hotel-style lighting, better menu choice, private rooms etc don't make for better healthcare.

You would think it does given the complaints about maternity wards on here.

And to be fair, rest and well-being is conducive to health. A&Es are like scary drug addicts asylums at the moment.

But rendered utterly redundant when they are provided at the expense of basic healthcare.

The fact that the NHS is only able to provide the minimum at the moment, and struggling to do so, doesn't justify this alternative.

Original poster
Cheekypeach · 18/02/2022 21:18

@AchillesPoirot

A&Es are like scary drug addicts asylums at the moment.

When were you last in an A&E? I’ve been in 3 since Christmas Day. That is not at all my experience at all.

Also your use of the word asylums to describe drug addicts places for treatment (?) is offensive.

4 months ago

It isn’t offensive, they are scary

OP posts: