On 28/06/16 22:35, Steve Walker wrote:
On 28/06/2016 22:22, James Wilkinson wrote:
On Tue, 28 Jun 2016 21:44:16 +0100, polygonum
wrote:

On 28/06/2016 21:30, James Wilkinson wrote:
On Tue, 28 Jun 2016 21:24:21 +0100, dennis@home

wrote:

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/news/2016/...-91537224.html




The NHS is a drain on our taxes and should be closed down.

Are you going to fund all your health needs out of your own cash?

Are you going to buy an insurance policy that covers all your health
needs?

Whichever, have you any idea how much it will cost you in actual money
terms?

In my entire life, the only thing the NHS fixed for me was a couple of
broken bones. That's a lot less than my tax contributions to the NHS.
I would much rather have paid for the bones from my own pocket.

Except that you don't know what medical needs you may suddenly have and
which could be totally unaffordable. To protect against that you would
have to take out insurance. Some people with existing health conditions
wouldn't be able to afford insurance; some people would lose their jobs
and be unable to afford insurance; those on low incomes could afford
nothing; elderly people would have massively loaded premiums that they
could not afford.

Just think of the NHS as health insurance that does not load premiums
for exisitng conditions, any conditions that you may develop in the
future or your age; spreads the premiums across everyone's earnings on
an ability to pay basis and does not include an element of profit, so
doesn't need to charge even higher premiums.

If that were all it was, it would be great.

Unfortunately its state provided healthcare.

Ad as is usual in such cases it's monumentally inefficient and pricey,
and hamstrung in terms of ability to access capital.

The problem with unlimited insurance into PRIVATE hospitals of course os
that unscrupulous hospitals will *bump up* the 'treatment' you need.

They tried to get around that with dentistry, by having fixed prices per
'operation' The trouble with THAT though is that it leads to rushed
work, and cheap materials. And takes no account of local costs of living
for dentists.

No easy fix, sadly



--
"When one man dies it's a tragedy. When thousands die it's statistics."

Josef Stalin