VAT on private health

[Simonandrod]

Am I right in thinking there isn't VAT on private health care? Is it completely unfeasible that it could be put on and money raised go to NHS? Or is it too complicated as so many people who use it have health insurance? Just interested

I can barely afford my pricate medical health insurance at £85 per month!

How about they stop taxing people who are already paying so much tax.

There’s no VAT on private operations. Which is weird when you think how rich people can queue jump and ordinary people have to wait and subsidise the process through tax…

Why are you raising this OP?

You would like it added.

Or you are worried that it might be added.

Let's just get everyone back to work, get everyone supporting their NHS, and schools through their tax. And themselves, so the decreasing minority don't have to sub everyone else.

No that makes no sense since people using private are already helping the NHS by taking the strain off

Yeah, more tax on the ever decreasing number of net contributors to pay for free stuff being used by an ever increasing number of net takers.

These kind of genius brainwaves are what got us into this mess in the first place. Keep going.

I pay for private medical insurance for specific things as part of my job. It is ludicrously expensive - about £350 a month. If they added 20%, that would be an extra £70 a month, which I cannot afford so I would cancel it, and revert to the NHS instead.

No extra money for the govt but an extra person queuing for a GP appt.

How would that help anyone?

No agenda. I'm just interested. NHS is in as bad a state as education. Presuming it is too complicated as otherwise Starmer would have thought of it.

Yes I believe most private healthcare is VAT exempt (cosmetic surgery is not). I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes subject to VAT at some point, because it’s the same concept as taxing private school fees.

But that's exactly what private schools do to the education system

Is this some Mumsnet comparison comparing someone who pays for an operation so they don't die to their child going to an unnecessary posh school? These threads have been interesting

You do pay tax on private health insurance though, as with all insurance

Yes I agree. Unfortunately though, it’s the same argument with private schools and they’re going to tax those fees. I agree it’s non sensical to tax someone on anything where they are reducing the burden on state resources.

I’d love to be able to rely on the NHS. I and my family have been forced to ‘queue jump’ whether we can afford it or not as the only alternative has been to deteriorate and or suffer in pain for years on end. If I’m not able to work then I have no national insurance contributions, making public services like the NHS suffer further. It works both ways.

So the same as people who pay for private education.
It's another form of luxury and higher care (or at least definitely quicker) than the NHS

I can see why this has been raised. But there may well be a large proportion of older people who have private health care and they are a large percentage of the voters. Starmer doesn't want to scare them off. The VAT on school fees is because he wants to turn groups of people against each other and it's a headline vote winner for those who are jealous of those who can afford it. It's short sighted, but isn't most politics.

And by using private healthcare you're taking docs away from nhs in just the same way as private schools take away teachers from state. Don't see the difference

Healthcare provided by registered practitioners is exempt as long as it fulfills a primary purpose.
A lot of the aspects of private health care are not exempt.

Private medical insurance premiums are. subject to insurance tax instead

I wouldn't have an issue with this.

I have private health. We need more money for the NHS, this seems like a reasonable place to go for it.

One of the biggest staffing issues in the nhs is people training in it (at huge taxpayer expense) then swapping to working quite limited hours as nhs consultants and higher hours on private sector work. I'd love to see something that targeted this. Like a training cost recovery fee that applies if you substantially reduce your nhs hours (with exemptions for maternity leave or ill health etc).

Plenty of people would like to be able to rely on state education.
I simply don't see the difference

I’ve a feeling it’s only at 12% though, not 20% like VAT.

Private health is every bit as inequitable as private schools

If they did it, so be it. I’d just cancel my health insurance and just use the NHS for everything.

It's quite literally the difference between life and death. Can't really compare health care to schooling. I think this is just another thread looking for a reason to moan about vat on private school tbh

Posh school?

Or one that caters for their child's SEN/neurodiversity/special interests?

All those things the taxpayer won't need to pay for if the parent goes private.