Re: the discussion that people living longer costs the NHS more money - this is not actually correct, odd though it sounds.
The highest costs accrued by most people are at birth at at end of life. So, being born is expensive, palliative care prior to death is expensive.
The stuff in between is relatively little, by comparison. Therefore, it makes little difference how long we live, because we are all born and we all die, in the end, which are the most expensive bits.
So it's a bit of an anomally to cite the NHS as unaffordable because we are all living longer.
What IS costing billions is the fact that dementia will affect 1:3 of us within 20 years. So 1:3 of us will need care in later life. This is a genuine concern for the NHS as most people don't have adequate pensions never mind the means to pay for dementia nursing care. As carers allowances and social services provision has just been cut back, will we all be able to pay for ourselves to have this specialist care, will you have racked up enough insurance premiums by then if the NHS is being abolished?
I learned today that we are funded for 1 further year only. GPs themselves are not that interested in funding us, though they acknowledge they value the service - dishing out antidepressants is cheaper (for them , more expensive for the economy as a whole). Where are the economies of scale though? With no overview, GPs will take the cheapest route in the short term which costs the economy billions - literally billions - in the medium-long term.
So reforms threaten to cost the taxpayer even more.
If you are suffering from mental ill-health in my region, in 12 months time you will need to fund any therapy yourself I'm afraid :(