Where is the money going to come from to meet the UK people expectations?

[Pandersmum]

So assuming that:

• everyone who receives disability benefits needs them and may actually believe they should be entitled to more
• pensioner benefits are non negotiable and again many believe they should be greater than current
• working people (most) believe they are already taxed highly and believe they cannot be taxed any more without further impact to their feeling of unfairness and resentment of the system
• it is unreasonable to expect young people with ADHD or other similar ND disorders / mental health challenges to work, even if they have qualifications and therefore they must be financially supported by the state
• Mental health challenges are very real in any age of person and therefore they must be financially supported by the state and if in work, by their employers
• rent (whatever level) should be supported by the state because it is a basic right to have a home
• NHS treatment (& the best treatment) should be free be all, no matter how expensive it is or whatever their age because people pay their taxes
• businesses are businesses and are there to make profits for their owners - therefore they can choose which country they operate in / pay their taxes in - if they don’t like the UK tax system, they can move somewhere else
• ’in work benefits’ are necessary to support ‘low paid workers, often in essential jobs’ to gain similar amounts of financial remuneration to those on benefits
• high net worth individuals can move if they don’t like the UK tax system

So just where is the money going to come from to fund the UK population of financial expectation of what the state should provide?

Turkeys tend not to vote for Christmas.

Umm Brexit! 😆

Or in the exempt category, after all, there's no way the NHS will be charging OAPs, dementia sufferers, unemployed, PIP claimants etc!

If only it were that simple. My OH has several appointments monthly re his cancer and it's a sodding nightmare to change appointments as the appointments clerks/offices simply don't answer the phone, and they ignore messages left on their answerphone. It's like hitting a random moving target to actually ring when someone will pick up. Not helped by it not being a single appointments office either - different hospital departments have different systems/phone numbers, so if appointments are linked, i.e. a blood test, x days before the chemotherapy start date, you can't book both with the same person - it has to be separately which means you can get say a blood test on the right day, but the only chemotherapy slot is then too early or too late, or you get the chemotherapy appointment but the other department can't give you a blood test on x days beforehand. Same when it comes to picking up the monthly prescription drug package - has to be handed over in person at the ward because of the controlled chemo drugs and that has to be x days after a different blood test date, but has to be the day before the monthly treatment cycle starts, so again, a juggling act with 3 different depts to get all the ducks in a row! OH has been known to ring 2 or 3 different people on the house phone, his mobile and my mobile so he can talk to all 3 at the same time if he manages to get through to them to liaise his appointments to fit. There must be an easier way. Somehow I don't believe the new idea of the Labour NHS super-app will cover complicated things like all aspects of complex cancer treatments!

Free prescriptions should be means-tested. You bring in more money than me and the vast majority of the working population, yet you get them for free. What complete wastage.

It would actually be cheaper to remove prescription charges altogether. Apparently only about 10% of prescriptions issued are paid for. Scotland doesn’t have charges at all.

I agree. I have offered to pay at the pharmacy before now and the response has been just short of "are you mad"?

@taxguru that just made my head hurt. I hope you and yiur DH are doing OK and things are going in the right direction.

Or charge everybody a much lower amount, say £1?

@Katypp Yes, and roll that out to other things. They'll still be a bargain but everyone's £1 would add up to a tidy contribution to the national kitty?

Just waiting for someone to appear saying some people can't afford £1 and it will hit the poorest hardest

I think it would be easier to just get rid of it.

My son was in hospital for 10 months until January this year. During that time I lost my job, things were already upsetting enough having a seriously unwell child and the added financial stress was awful enough but it helped that I knew at least my son would always have some food.

Some hospitals also feed parents of children which makes such a difference, though that tends to be through charities connected to the hospital.

But the country needs more money. Not less.

It’s a drop in the ocean in the great scheme of things. 89% of prescriptions are filled at no charge, the cost of getting rid of the charge would be about £10 million, in the context of government budgets it’s barely worth collecting.

In reference to your other comment below, why do you think it would cost 10 million pounds for everyone to pay for their prescriptions (perhaps barring those on certain benefits)?

Overall though, it is clearly the case that someone will scream and complain whatever any government tries to do to reduce spending. Look at what has happened over the WFA (a small cut) and the attempted benefit cuts.
Look at what has happened in the US where Trump was elected on a cost cutting platform and no proposes to increase the deficit!

The options are either:
V large cuts in spending (ones that will hurt most people)
Significant tax rises when taxes are already very high for many working people and at the highest level overall for 50 years.
Borrowing and being at the mercy of the markets, ie bond markets may revolt very badly.

Which option or combination do you advocate for?

Still waiting for those definitions. 🙄

why do you think it would cost 10 million pounds for everyone to pay for their prescriptions

I don’t.

Free prescriptions cost nearly 10 billion I think, there could be some savings there.

I am glad I don't pay for mine as I am on several medications and am only allowed them weekly, so I simply could not afford to pay for them.
Saying that, if free ones were abolished, I would have no problem paying £10pm for the pre-payment certificate.

The NHS could be "encouraged" not to keep issuing prescriptions for things that people don't actually need and havn't asked for!!

Back in the day when I used to hand in the paper prescription request form, I'd often tick just 1 or 2 items but the GP surgery would issue everything on the repeat form. Same when using the pharmacy repeat request service where again despite me only asking for 1 or 2 items, the entire list would be issued.

Now with OH and his cancer related drugs - he gets a "full" set of drugs, including a drug for constipation and a drug for stopping diarhoea - obviously he doesn't "Need" both at the same time, but he still gets 28 of each every month which he can't get stopped. But the real issue is his very expensive chemo drugs, one costing £1k per tablet, the other £300 per tablet. He has agreed with the oncologist to take the former just twice a month instead of the standard 3 times and the other just 10/11 days per month instead of 21. But he still gets the full 3/21 issued automatically every month. He's asked the oncologist to reduce the prescription to what he actually takes but has been told "it's too hard to change" and that the oncology dept gets the funding for the prescription so issuing too much doesn't cost the dept anything!! He has other automatically issued prescriptions too from oncology such as anti sickness, which likewise are issued for 28 days yet he only uses 1 or 2 per month, and again, can't stop them being issued!

It's all absolutely insane! Literally no one cares in the NHS about the waste as it always seems to be "someone else's" budget that is funding it.

With the idea of paying for none emergency a&e visits, would we get a refund when it turns out it was an emergency, for I have been in that boat, and I would resent all the charges for misdiagnosis and claims of it must be anxiety when it was an actual problem.

Yep.

The reason why my son is disabled is due to a misdiagnosis and then a surgeon digging their heels in ignoring the nurses concerns claiming that he absolutely wasn't surgical (he absolutely was) which resulted in a cardiac arrest and a 10 month hospital stay. They are lucky he survived.

The NHS sure loves to make things more expensive for themselves.

What did you mean by this then? Presumably you think the admin would cost 10 million?
Same question as before to everyone about which of those three options the UK should choose. We have to take at least one of the three options.

What about the other way around? You end up in A&E thinking you are having a heart attack, but turns out to be a panic attack.
"Here is a number for the local Talk Therapy, by the way, you owe us £50 because you were not actually ill".

I really disagree with whoever proposed to get rid of meals in hospitals. What a daft idea hitting you when you’re most vulnerable! Surely we can think of better places to save money. Jesus.