VAT on private healthcare?

[justasking111]

Neil Kinnock has an idea for Rachel Reeves. Putting Vat on private healthcare would raise 2 billion pounds a year which could improve the NHS.

I have my doubts about this helping unless it's ring fenced for the NHS.

He's also said that anyone with assets of ten million pounds plus should pay 2% tax on it.

Unfortunately the type of people who agree with taxing education/healthcare don't understand that. The Fabian ideology is equity through making sure everyone has to use equally shit services.
Like I said though, Labour's biggest donors are owners of private healthcare companies so it probably won't go ahead. They are utter hypocrites 😡

I can see why it follows after private school VAT (which I wasn’t in support of and even less so now it’s going to be spent on housing) but as someone who had to go private for their 6 month old to have a critical operation, private healthcare doesn’t currently feel like a luxury.

Agree but VAT isn't a luxury tax. Sadly many parents with kids in independent schools feel the same as you. Labour and their supporters don't care. It's purely ideological

As a PP said, it’s completely different to private education, and all the posts on this thread do is show how much you haven’t got a clue how any of this stuff works. Private education is paid for by the consumer, who is the only person who ultimately pays VAT as VAT registered businesses reclaim input VAT (ie VAT on purchases). Private healthcare is by and large paid for by the big insurers and the consumer (or their employer) already pays insurance tax on their premiums the same as you do on your car insurance etc. the insurers could register for VAT and reclaim all of the input VAT charged by private hospitals, but would not be able to recharge to the customer because insurance does not attract VAT.

The few uninsured people who access private health care from their own pockets would be worse off, but I don’t think these are the wealthy people you’re wanting to target, or that this would raise a substantial amount, more likely just increase demand on the NHS.

i also suspect by far the biggest customer of private hospitals is the NHS, so not sure how that would work!

@twistyizzy It might not be a luxury tax but I think that is how many people view it. If the state provides a service, and you pay for a better service, that better service is a luxury and should therefore be taxed. But it feels like more of a necessity than a luxury nowadays. My DC was ‘top priority’ for his op because of the risk to his health/ life but the NHS was too under resourced to be able to schedule it.

Yes because most supporters bought into Labour's soundbites etc. Zero critical thinking.
The fact caviar is exempt from VAT but children's education is now taxed is just dystopian

In a survey amongst Scottish people who’ve used private health care the biggest reason was long waiting lists

• “64% of those who reported accessing private care for themselves or a member of their household said it was because the NHS waiting list was too long.

https://www.bma.org.uk/bma-media-centre/doctors-leader-warns-nhs-is-dying-before-our-eyes-as-new-figures-reveal-scale-of-private-healthcare-use-in-scotland

for a government that keeps banging the drum about getting people back into work they can’t make healthcare more difficult to get.

I’ve now used private health care three times, twice had to take our loans as I needed to keep working and the length of time (to even get diagnosed on the nhs really wasn’t an option unless I gave up work) and the third one was luckily under a business bupa scheme, it was cancer, again serious difficulty even getting diagnosed, so I went private for diagnosis, biopsy and all of the treatment.

Many of us who argued against VAT on education warned that it was the thin of the wedge and that it would open the door to VAT on other things like nurseries, university fees, care homes, and private healthcare. I wonder how many people who are against taxing private healthcare are in favour of taxing education.

If a government can justify taxing school fees, they can justify taxing private healthcare. Private health care is only available to those financially better off in society, and there is a state alternative. By the sounds of it, it would raise more than VAT on school fees as well.

👏👏

Because the NHS will be exempt from VAT according to Kinnock.

It was absolutely essential to me.

I fell and hurt my shoulder. I was told physio and a wait of 2 years. I couldn't lift my arm!! Imagine not being able to lift your arm. Quite essential.

Adding VAT to private health is as ridiculous as adding VAT to school fees.

It's the same in Wales, getting referred by the GP is a mountain to climb. If you do it's many months before you are seen. Then another long wait for scans, another wait to see consultant again. Then on the waiting list you go for treatment. Add another two to three years for this.

England is reducing waiting times slowly. Nothing has changed in Wales and possibly Scotland.

If the state provides an excellent service to some people and a shitty, inferior service to others - do you still see opting out of the state service as a 'luxury'?

Not wanting to derail this conversation from healthcare to education, but the biggest inequality in education is within the state sector where millionaires can buy privilege for their children to go to the best state schools by being able to live next door to said schools.

The same could be said of the health service with the postcode lottery that exists for many.

My husband hurt his shoulder, sent to NHS physio. Given a sheet of exercises to do and told to bugger off. Two years later consultant informed him OH dear torn rotor cuff. Too late now

There's not many outstanding state schools scattered around the country though.

I have been waiting months for an appointment for a very painful, worrying problem. I have caved in and booked a private consultation using my credit card. This is the 4th time in 10 years I have had to do this due to the absolute shambles that is the appointment system in the NHS. I really can't afford it but the situation is beyond dangerous now. It is an absolute insult to suggest adding VAT, given the number of people who seem to be in the same boat as me.

Is there really a postcode lottery to where there’s a huge difference in care qualiyy and wait lists? And surely it depends what department you need an appointment with.

Yes there is. Parents moved up to NE 5 years ago (mum with Parkinsons) and the care she is getting up here Vs their old NHS (yorkshire) is night and day. There is huge disparity across all public services hence postcode lottery phrase. It's a fact.

Myself and my 2 young kids have all needed help these past few years, inc 2 operations. They are all across different areas - gastro, physio and ENT. All have been shit with long wait lists. Had to private for 2 of them. So are you saying that there will be other postcodes where all 3 of these departments have much shorter waits? Or again is it just the luck of the draw, where if I moved, I might get a shorter wait for ENT but a longer wait for gastro for example?

Yes and yes - to both of your questions.

Is it fair that my ds was offered a place at a school that even Ofsted described as dangerous, despite me paying higher rate tax for 30 years?

Then when I, as a single mum, scrape together the funds to pay for his senior school, after DS won a scholarship, I should then be charged an extra £2k a year in VAT in DS' A'level year when it would be utterly selfish to move him?

Welcome to Labour's spite. Not nice is it.

My point is that the idea that inequality in education only happens in the private sector is wrong. There are as many good schools in the UK as there are crap schools. The point is, the state doesn't provide an equal experience for all, so opting out for some isn't seen as the luxury many try to say it is.

Yes is the short answer.

You aren’t ‘forced’. You are one of the lucky ones who have the luxury of choice. There will be millions of people who can’t afford private and have no choice but to remain in the nhs list, however long it takes. They are the ones who are forced.

I think it makes sense for people who can’t afford private afford it to pay the VAT on private healthcare.

Ok. So basically, regardless of postcode, many people may need to turn to private healthcare for something, depending on how lucky they are with waitlists for a certain department.