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.

Labour + their supporters don't care about that, they just sow division and class warfare by using false statements and language.

I’m very torn as it’s a similar situation to private education in some ways. We can never afford private education as it’s too much for 1 year let alone 12/14 years.

While private healthcare is a perk through our work and we still have a co-pay every year if we use it. Then most is covered. We have used it to be seen quicker and have investigations.

We could never afford private healthcare out of pocket and I guess this is who it will hit the most?

For the nhs using private to reduce the backlogs I wonder how this would affect the situation.

I have private healthcare through work. When cataracts left me unable (legally) to drive and so also hindered my vision sufficiently to do my job fortunately I was able to get them done promptly, to the point where both eyes were healed and I was back at work and driving before I got a cancellation appointment from the NHS. Private healthcare is not a luxury when the NHS is on its knees.

Exactly same situation as taxing education. State sector is on its knees. Labour happily did that though.

About 10 years ago, my mum desperately needed a hysterectomy. Her uterus was full of fibroids, heavy (several pregnancies including twins) and her bladder was protruding outside her body - ie had been pushed down her vagina out where you could see and feel it. The GP suggested it might be "taped", but there was a massive wait to see a gyn. Had no real shits to give. My mum literally couldn't walk around without her bladder coming out of her body. So she couldn't walk anywhere!

So she paid for a private hysterectomy. She does not have oodles of cash. The cost represented a good chunk of her life savings.

To charge VAT on this would be very far beyond despicable. Then again, that's what labour are.

Do you support the tax on children's education?

No big surprise there. Only possible thing to save healthcare from being taxed in the same way as education is that most people either know someone who has been forced to go private for treatment, or at least can imagine it might happen to them. Not everyone has school age kids or lives in an area with bad schools so can't identify with wanting to send children to a different school if they are able. Also the disappearance of NHS dentists means most people will have more sympathy with the private healthcare industry than they do with education.

The co-pay will go up too with this. Which means both a) more money immediately out of your pocket and b) your employer has to pay more which leads to either no pay rises or job losses.

But the net result would be the VAT on healthcare would then be charged to insurers who would not recover, so pass on to customers along with the IPT - so would be paying both ie double taxation.

Why can't Labour ever understand that it's always normal people who end up paying? Raise employers NI = employers make people redundant + stop recruitment, tax healthcare = consumer pays twice.

Fucking fiscally and economically illiterate.

If I pay for private, I'm already saving the country money by not using the NHS I've already paid for through my taxes, and it means there's one person less in the NHS queue. To punch me in the face while I'm doing that is madness.

However, same argument for my children in private school - I've paid for the state school places already, I'm not taking them, and yet apparently I also need to be punched in the face at the same time.

I wonder what's next? VAT on university fees? After all, going to university is more optional than medical treatment

I think the difference is that this really could result in overwhelming the NHS in a way that the amount of people affected by VAT on school fees wasn't going to overwhelm the state school system. And I imagine that there will a hell of a lot more people who can only just about afford (and have really sacrificed a lot, not just their foreign holidays and new BMW) the private healthcare that they have felt they had no choice in pursuing due to failures of the NHS. And if all of those people are precluded from using private healthcare plus VAT, then the government won't raise 2 billion.

Ideologically there is no difference. The arguments are the same for both as you've just highlighted. Both state run health and education systems are in crisis.
Sorry but if you support taxing the education of children then you can't possibly claim not to support taxing healthcare.

Makes sense - if you put vat on mental
health of children, why not on physical health as well!

Precisely

I don't support VAT on education......
The PP said they didn't see a difference, and I think there is one.
I didn't state I supported either.

I wonder if the anybody but Tories lot are still happy to have contributed to this shower of shit.

I think some are, on mn anyway.

Yep. RR received two terms of VAT fees on private schools.
I'm sure 6500 have started already

Exactly.

People who use private healthcare are those who have learned through painful or stressful experiences that they couldn't rely solely on the NHS for important matters.

When the NHS fails someone, if that person has private healthcare, they will be safeguarded.

Private healthcare supports the NHS in its own way, with one of the major contributions being the alleviation of pressure and reduction of waiting lists.

It's worth noting that we already fund the NHS through taxes, and in the future, there could be a point where additional payment is required at the time of service. Essentially, this would mean paying twice just for the NHS.

It's hardly a luxury anymore. Plenty of people pay for treatment they can't afford, simply because the wait on the NHS is untenable.
I have a bupa plan. Last winter when I ran out of money I turned the heating off rather than cancel my health insurance.
Politics of envy again from Labour. Same as with the schools, and that went well for them.

🤣🤣 good one!"

i have no doubt they will. They won’t look at the root cause for why the NHS is shit. They just want to pour more money into it so they parrot ‘we invested x billion’ despite it did fuck all to fix anything.

Yep, mine is VAT registered and the amount quoted for an appointment was £175+VAT

Looked him up on Companies House and his business isn’t short of a pound or two.

VAT on children’s education. VAT on health care. Labour - aren’t they fantastic.

My only question is what is next Labour disciples - do you know?

We did say VAT on Education would open the gates for more tax charges

Another “tax the rich” but it’s not the rich who will be affected.

A £2000 procedure that costs Mrs Rich £2,400 for themselves/family/child won’t make a difference to them, but the extra £400 to Mrs Bloggs, will likely force them back onto the NHS wait list, or into unnecessary debt.