Privitised system or Nationalised System?

[Gukophoto]

After reading and responding to nutters discussion it made me think about how people feel about the NHS, and the amount of tax we pay for it. I am sure that people will have different views based upon where they are in the life cycle.

So are you happy with the way the NHS is, or do you think a system or Privitisation similar to the US would be better.

I was recently charged for a recent spell at the Hospital which I felt was a little unfair, especially when I pay my NI, so I got thinking harder about some other aspects of the NHS.

For example, I pay tax, which goes towards the free treatment on the NHS. Which is fine, should I require NHS treatment, but recently the amount of tax money required for the failing NHS just keeps rising, and there is 1 major reason for this... Binge Drinking ...

Am I alone in thinking that if we paid for insurances this would work out better for the Health Services. I mean youngsters who spend a couple of days a year in hospital (over the year) for drinking related problems, then they would be paying for what it is costing them, and then others who are not wasting Health Service time can pay a fair rate?

I hope that mkes sense, its lae for me I have been soo busy of late... Your thoughts?

A

[Nicko]

I think that either way you have it someone along the line get's a raw deal. I did watch a bit of a documentary by Michael Moore on this and he thought that the US had the worst system going. There was one bit where he went into the finance department of an NHS hospital where an old lady was collecting money the hospital were giving her to get home, and he thought she was paying for her treatment.

[the_nightwing]

i don't mind being taxed for health care as long as the nurses get paid a fair amount. to be honest i think more money should be going to the nhs. if we all paid a couple extra bucks then our hospitals wouldn't be in such a bad state!

[Gukophoto]

But also if we didnt have an overwhelming binge drinking problem, where hospitals are packed on a frday and saturday night, costing loads in treatments, then also the situation would be different...

Likewise with smoking

A

[nutter]

Originally Posted by Gukophoto

Likewise with smoking

A

The NHS system is funded by the taxes on cigarettes...


But binge drinking probably doesn't help. Just don't get into a near death accident on friday/saturday nights and you'll be fine

I don't fully understand how it works so i can't really comment.

[Epo]

The glaring problem here is that we are already taxed on Alcohol and Cigarettes when we buy them. The taxes are commonly referred to as excise tax and VAT. The world health organisation currently asks that countries; "Promote health by controlling the availability, for example for young people, and influencing the price of alcoholic beverages, for instance by taxation", which we as a democracy already do.

However, I'm not sure that all this tax goes back into the NHS (£1.7 billion spent on alcohol induced illness). It should do. This would be a better system than an insurance system, as then we run the risk of people not being able to afford their insurance, so not paying it and thus being refused treatment, which is why we have an NHS to begin with. I feel lucky to live in a nationlised system, and I am teetotal, so already avoid paying taxes.

[captainff]

Originally Posted by Epo

However, I'm not sure that all this tax goes back into the NHS (£1.7 billion spent on alcohol induced illness).

The age old problem of once the Treasury has your tax money then politicians decide where it should be spent.. .. .. .. Tobacco raises annually in the region of £15 billion in tax revenue .. .. .. treating tobacco related illness costs £1.5 billion. I have no idea how much is raised from alcohol but I assume it is a similar or larger amount.

Originally Posted by Gukophoto

But also if we didnt have an overwhelming binge drinking problem, where hospitals are packed on a frday and saturday night, costing loads in treatments, then also the situation would be different...

It's been like that for years .. .. .. it isn't a new situation and yet it seems like it is due to media attention. Ask any office worker, builder or teacher (not exclusively, but you get the idea) about what they did on a Friday evening when they first started work. Chances are that they will tell you they went to the pub.

Originally Posted by Gukophoto

I was recently charged for a recent spell at the Hospital

I'm curious .. .. .. .. was it an NHS hospital?

[Gukophoto]

I understand it is an age old problem, and although I am only 20 I have been going on about it for years, it was just Nutters post recently that made me cursious about other forumers thoughts.

Sadly yes it was an NHS hospital, I have paid up in form of a check as they said failure to pay would result in me going to court, but I accompanied it with a letter questionning this, as it was because I was admitted to A&E that they charged?

A

[hillyjo13]

im a little split on this heres the reasons

in my case

i have probably had more then my fair share of treatment on the nhs! as most of you now ive recently had a few operations (which if i had gone private would have cost thousands) my treatment was first class and i was looked after very well for three weeks then for another 5months as an out patient (including regular hydro pool sessions) add this onto two more serious broken legs over the years plus many minor things (yes i am a little clumsy )
saying that i do pay a hell of a lot of tax

then my dads case

i fully hold the nhs responsible for the death of my father! my dad payed his taxes all his life (he ran his own buisness so most of his working life he payed 40%)
he was left on a trolley for over 24 hours then put on the wrong medication for another two days (all this done in a&e because they didn't have a bed for him) by the time they moved him it was to intensive care and to late! he had some internal bleeding and they still had him on warfarine! plus other things we didn't find out about

if dad had been in a private system im sure it would have been different!
we could have took matters further and maybe sued but in our eyes that would have just put more strain on the nhs and maybe caused future problems for someone else


so its a hard one

just to echo captains comments on binge drinking (i mentioned it in eds petition thread a couple of days ago) binge drinking is just a new term being used alot latley it's always happened and in my eyes always will nothing new there its just apart of life most people go through! you could also say the same about obesity,sports injuries,car accidents etc for all my time spent in hospital none of it was alcohol related (apart from one stomach pump) and believe me i was one of the biggest "binge" drinkers around!