to think the UK has become awful?

[ma1formed]

I can't pinpoint when, but it feels like everything that was once pretty good is now quite awful

So expensive
No doctors
Uni costs for kids insane
Terrible rent / can't buy a house
Everyone seems quite unpleasant or racist

Is it just me?

There is no other European country where healthcare is entirely free at the point of use, all countries employ some form of charging for items such as GP appointments and other services.

Apart from dentistry in pp that is remarkable

I heard a checked piece of info today, by 2036 1 in 11 will be working in the NHS

Stuck with me. That’s loads

Yes apologies, I should have specified that although I think it is technically free at the point of use to those under 18 and eye tests are free for many including those over 40 with certain heritable conditions. I don’t think anywhere in the world provides free dentistry at the point of use for adults.

My native one does. It's covered by your "insurance" (as pp said basically just pay deduction or if unemployed state covers you). Not for some special extras like white fillings, but basic dentistry like basic filling, extraction, etc is free including annual check ups.

Is 100% of the cost covered upfront for all adults not on benefits (ie no money changes hands) or do you pay and then claim a rebate?

Well, at least Dentistry is available in other European countries, in Cornwall, even private involves waiting lists, NHS is simply not an option.

On paying up front for treatment, people in the UK are increasingly turning to private healthcare, even without insurance, such are the awful waits for NHS care, people are dying of preventable conditions and still we get "other countries are just as bad...."

No! they are not!

We have consistently, over decades, under funded the NHS per capita, compared to the European average and still we get Hunt and Sunak talking up tax cuts....

Covered

Perhaps if the NHS was restructured so it became more like that of other European countries’ health systems Dentistry might be more accessible.

Which country is that?

Eu country. Unless few others changed we are not the only ones with basics free. Well covered by the "insurance".

We simply do not have enough staff, not enough young people and not enough NHS workers free to train them up.

Dentistry could be fixed instantly if we paid more.. NHS £23 for a filling VS £85+ for private.

A friend's mum (mid 70s) has just spent over 24 hours in A&E in a chair, as there were no beds. She's now very poorly. I know of someone else who recently spent the night in a different hospital's A&E on the floor - not on a mattress, literally lying on the floor - as there weren't even any chairs.

This can't continue. What worries me is that rather than looking to other countries with systems that actually work (or at least work far better), now that we're out of the EU and desperate for deals there'll be pressure from covetous US style insurance companies (and those with vested interests therein) to move towards an American style system. I think we can all agree this would be a disaster, but as pp mentioned, people are already resorting to private solutions. I don't blame them - who wants a worrying wait? - but the more that happens, the more it might be seen that the public would accept a private insurance system. I hope I'm wrong.

I’d be curious to know which EU country has an insurance based system and yet no money changes hands for adults not on benefits.

The NHS employs 1.5 million people making it the biggest employer in Europe and one of the largest employers in the world.

It’ll employ 1 in 11 of us in about a decade

I assume that doesn’t include care workers who are not NHS

Given people use NHS majority at near end of life, about 90% of their care it really will be a large chunk of population looking after elderly people

Not sure how well manage it. Maybe AI will take some of the load

@Kangaroobrain Nobody wants a US style system. There are plenty of healthcare systems around the world which function relatively well and absolutely nobody thinks the US is one of them.

Yes. Because the bulk of his earnings were asset wealth, so were taxed as capital gains (correctly) at 28%.

Majority of teachers and nurses are lower rate taxpayers at 20% so he in effect pays broadly the same proportionately, but at a much higher value.

Absolutely - the public don't want it. But the current government is continuing to privatise large sections of healthcare, and the NHS is becoming ever more vulnerable:

www.thelondoneconomic.com/opinion/revealed-the-links-between-tory-mps-and-the-people-profiting-from-nhs-privatisation-213827/

The links cited in that article are tenuous at best.

I think it's very easy to live in a bubble and notice pockets of crappiness but the general vibe is still ok- or live somewhere it's very much not ok. We live in Bath which is attractive and functions but still has crappy potholes and some empty shops but I go elsewhere to less well off places a lot with work- and it's like the Wild West, feel very sorry for folks in these neglected places !!

However today for instance we've had to drive 'up north' for a work thing- I'm now in the Wirral - Heswall is lovely little town, very clean, nice bars, nice restaurants, yep- I could live here- drive 20 miles though and it can be a different story.

However having come back from Denmark last year what I can't get over is the sheer grubbiness of lots of places- both service stations today filthy- chips on floor, uncleared tables- just grim. No one in so many places seems to give a shit about service or cleanliness. Drivers are more aggressive, supermarkets very hit and miss - everything down to the lowest common denominator. A lot of dogs not properly controlled , councils with no money to do gardens and parks, weed roadsides- the list goes on

Brexit has reduced tax take and yet cost over 300 billion and made the country poorer and so now less money to apply all the 'we can fund this ourself principle' - if they could have done so you can bet they would have done just to keep getting elected- so it's clear the money isn't there.

The country needs a change, the Tory's have nothing on the statute books- it's clear they have no ideas, no forward thinking direction and that Brexit was the europhiles wet dream without any actual thought into the negative side of it .

But the problem is migrants right? Not the rich fixing the tax system so they avoid paying their fair share?

@EasternStandard seemed pretty free when we lived in Denmark- never paid anything , nor insurance. dentistry was paid- but so is UK .

The top 1% of taxpayers by income currently pay more than 28% of all income tax in the UK. The top 10% pay over 60%.

Dentistry in Denmark is “free” for under 18s only.

Which rather begs the question as to how that top 1% justify paying themselves so much.

Or another way of looking at is thank goodness we have so many people willing and able to pay 45% of their income to fund public services.

All of what you said plus in Wales it rains constantly, we have not had a summer and we now have to drive at 20mph…. Everywhere. Our government is run by a dictator. I live in a beautiful place but living in wales it just not worth it! I’ve stopped thinking things can’t get any worse because they can and have. I hate it here.