To ask if you would pay for GP visits

[justanotherhappyflunkie]

Been talking with various friends who all agree they would rather pay a nominal sum to see a GP rather than the current system.

I have lived in a country that does this (free for children, disabled people, discounts for beneficiaries and long term sickness) and it was great. Same day appointments, good range of doctors, quick referrals.

The UK equivalent of this would be around £20 per visit.

AIBU to suggest it is the system that could help the NHS? prepares for a flaming!

Asking people to pay more is always hard, some do already or twice and it’s usually for benefit of another group.

I feel a bit ‘government fund more’ re everything just means some taxpayers pay more.

MarshaBradyo · Today 09:26

Asking people to pay more is always hard, some do already or twice and it’s usually for benefit of another group.

I feel a bit ‘government fund more’ re everything just means some taxpayers pay more.

Agreed. And in my opinion the biggest change is that over 60s should not get everything free automatically. Obviously if they're on pension credit they should but why otherwise? Many are still working or are on large pensions with more disposable income than younger people yet they don't pay NI on their pension and don't pay for prescriptions. But they are the biggest cost to the NHS.

Would gladly pay if it means I can actually see a GP.

Asking people to pay more is always hard, some do already or twice and it’s usually for benefit of another group.
Well yes but in the case of the current government it's been for the benefit of the super rich rather than the vulnerable or even the just scraping bys.

YABU.

I absolutely fucking wouldnt. I will join the rioters.

They've Already fucked up dentistry - no more slippery slope for general health.

If I could afford it I would, I have a multitude of health issues so I see my GP a lot. Always have great service.

I would but many couldn’t afford it so it’s just another thing I’d end up subsidising others for which I would resent

@FatEaredFuck exactly. Sadly the people of the UK are so bl**dy predictable. A relentless feed of negative articles about the NHS from the same old sources and already the gullible population is being nudged in the right direction to thinking it's time to get rid. You can see the similarities between the rhetoric about the 'EU fat cats in Brussels jumping on the gravy train' and 'the lazy inefficient NHS managers/ NHS is a black hole' stuff that's being spouted.
I commented on an innocent facebook post the other day about the NHS.
It was a photo of smiling nurses in starched uniforms from the 70s. Many of the posts were derogatory about nurses - fat, lazy, uncaring- but most were about NHS diversity managers earning £100k and absolutely clueless about the management structure. Now I might be paranoid but that very subject was a thread a few weeks ago on MN and then picked up by the DM. Funny that 🙄 and telling how the anti NHS rhetoric is slowly but surely finding its audience.

It’d probably massively annoy both ends - those who don’t want to subsidise others and those who think it’s a slippery slope to dismantling NHS

I am not convinced. If people are missing "appointments", it's telephone appointments, which unless they are for a specific time, are not appointments.

Phoning someone at a random time, when they may be working, on the loo, or driving, is not an appointment. If a GP says they'll call you eg between 4 and 4.30 and you're not there, that's a missed appointment, but not a random call.

"There’s a ridiculous misunderstand of NI here. It doesn’t insure you! It doesn’t pay for the NHS. It used to be thought it paid for pensions. It’s not an insurance. It’s tax. If goes into the taxation income pot like every other tax. So how we fund the NHS is not ring fenced."

But the original intention was that National Insurance would be just that - an insurance that would cover the cost of healthcare and pensions. Amongst older people (i.e. aged 65+) there is no "misunderstanding". They paid NI and accepted increases in these contributions on the clear understanding that the government was promising a social contract and would ensure that the health service and pensions were protected. The parents of this generation had hardly had either - vilification of the poor continued right up until WW2 and workhouses were only abolished after the Labour Party introduced the National Assistance act of 1948, only 75 years ago.

FWIW, this is exactly how the central European systems work. Along with their employers, people pay a percentage of their salary into a Mutual healthcare fund which is ringfenced and another percentage into a pension fund, which is likewise ringfenced.

There has been much legislation in the UK to prevent private employers from running off with the Company Pension Fund (cf Maxwell and the Daily Mirror fund that left pensioners penniless) but governments of all persuasions seem happy to either raid the NI pot or at least not a) ringfence it and b) top it up to the required level. The Conservatives are back to their basic mantra, the one that began with the Elizabethan Poor Laws of 600 years ago (which were not totally abolished until 1948) that assumes that the poor are degenerate skivers and treats them accordingly.

Yes if I could see a GP face to face.

A visit including travel can easily take half an hour or an hour. I wouldn't be doing that for £20! Private GP home visits run at upwards of £300 in London

gogodoc.com/pricing/
www.one5.health/doctor-home-visits-london

just realised you might be using the word visit as an appointment rather than a home visit

even so in the private sector this is charged at upwards of £100

If patients won't have monitoring bloods that are needed then eventually we just refuse to prescribe as it isn't safe.

The basic premise is NOT that any more! How can it be? @Brefugee
We do not have a tax linked to NHS services. We have a link to pension contributions but even then there are pension credits when you are not working. Your tax payments go to pay everyone’s pensions and services right now! Not X years in the future for you.

Fascinated to see the service where for £170 you can access unlimited GP visits for a whole family for a month. It would very swiftly go bankrupt. Could you share the website? Presumably you pay extra per visit.

@monitor1 The person has already said you get a couple (2?) appointments a year. So it is basically for healthy people with the odd earache or rash.

Ah I didn't see that the link had been shared. They do seem to offer unlimited visits. I have no idea how that is financially viable. There must be something about reasonable use in the small print. bizarre!

"Above all, your doctors make no charge for their time." very odd!

@monitor1 I had not seen the link either. I agree there must be small print.

Personally, I would because I can afford it. I absolutely don't think that every one should have to though and it's not always as simple as staying people with xx amount of income should pay because that doesn't cover what their outgoings are. I suppose if there were a voluntary charge some people may pay knowing it would keep things free for others ? I don't know.

@SnackSizeRaisin childcare should be heavily subsidised, I agree. The point I was making is that despite being a higher earner, my disposable income is very low because of living in London (housing) and childcare (so I can work). I wouldn't be happy having to pay for a GP appointment right now unless it meant a reduction in tax - I can't afford more outgoings unless my take home pay was higher. Having an income level cut off point doesn't take into account factors like where you live, family support (which affects childcare), childcare and other life costs

Yes, I'd be happy to. Or we should at least charge £20 for missed appointments, unsure how they would enforce this though.

It's not disgusting, it's how nearly all other countries work. I'm pretty sure we're the only country in the world who has unlimited free access to GP appointments. The NHS is in crisis, reform needs to happen I'm afraid. If this system was to start there would undoubtedly be discounts/free alternatives for very low incomes or people with long term/chronic illnesses.

The NHS can't carry on this way, so I think a lot of people need to prepare themselves for this kind of change in the future.

@babsanderson @Swg @Twiglets1

Paracetamol and any other medication which would normally be OOC but is given to an elderly / vulnerable person by a carer also needs to be on prescription.

I don't see this working because already lots of people are skipping some of their prescriptions so they can afford living costs, the threshold for prescriptions and FSM is really low and lots of people are really struggling. I wouldn't want people being put off getting cancer screening or avoiding going on antidepressants, there is already a lot of problems caused by covid and people not being able to get appointments, eg. Statins in the news.