"ARE YOU SAYING THAT HE CANNOT MEET HIS OWN MEDICAL EXPENSES? Of course he can." They have also probably also contributed reams more in welfare state taxation than the man in the street (assuming they are not participating in p*ss-taking tax avoidance schemes) .
That's a rare case SD. RDBD, so they contribute which is only right but whether they should contribute more because they are paid more is another argument. Ade gives a lot to his countrymen which is entirely his choice, but he's rich enough not to use the NHS.
"RDBD, so they contribute which is only right but whether they should contribute more because they are paid more is another argument. Ade gives a lot to his countrymen which is entirely his choice, but he's rich enough not to use the NHS." You are debating the philosophical matter known as "Can I ?? Should I ??" . Can they use welfare state resources ?? Yes. They paid enough in taxes. Should they do so ?? If the cost is not incredibly high, perhaps not.
I don't know anybody with self respect can accept hand outs from the state if they are rich enough to live without them.
"I don't know anybody with self respect can accept hand outs from the state if they are rich enough to live without them." Of course. But major medical treatment is a bit different to deciding to take your SERPS when you have a private pension pot worth millions.
Feel free to look up anything about the US healthcare system. It's changed recently and accurate figures aren't yet available, but as of 2010 they spent more on publicly funded healthcare per person than any other country in the developed world, barring Norway and the Netherlands. Their overall spending per person (government plus personal) was more than twice of that of France, the UK and Sweden, despite each of those countries having universal healthcare. Their neighbours Canada have better healthcare for less and they adopted the universal system during the 60s and 70s. Why anyone would want to move towards a less effective and more expensive system is beyond me. The Americans appear to have been scared into it by their media's horrible portrayal of anything socialist being on the verge of the Communism, which is basically Satanism over there.
People contribute to the system and they're entitled to use it when they need to. I expect that you'd use the police, fire brigade, etc. and fail to see the distinction.
Even though they've paid Tax and NI contributions their whole life? That makes no sense... which seems to be a recurring theme.
These people become rich by maximising all sources of income. If it is a state handout so be it. There are a few,a very few, who will give their benefits to charity and one I know of who gave his tax savings when the rich had their tax rates cut to charity as well.
Really Dev? They have paid tax and NI yes but if they were to be given the choice of waiting 6 months on the NHS or 1 week for a private hospital which do you suppose they'd choose even though they've paid tax and NI? Yes, they'd choose the 1 week wait wouldn't they? As usual your attempt at making a valid point falls way short.
I've done that and the cost going private would make your eye's water,couldn't afford to do it every time,180 pounds just for an appointment with a consultant!!!
And as usual your comments are bordering on the idiotic (some may say they are so far into Idiot territory that you have invaded it). Given the choice, of course wealthy individuals would choose to go private to speed things up, but your argument was that they should have no choice but to go Private simply because YOU don't want them receiving treatment that they can afford for themselves in private hospitals. Make up your mind eh
"I've done that and the cost going private would make your eye's water,couldn't afford to do it every time, 180 pounds just for an appointment with a consultant!!!" The medical sector is interesting because a fair bit of the private sector consultancy is done by ... people who do NHS work. My understanding is that for certain medical fields, there is a balancing act between the NHS and private sectors. The consultants cannot be forced into solely working for the NHS, as the private gigs are lucrative and the NHS cannot risk losing their skills en-masse. Similarly there are just not enough patients to make private work self-sustaining, so they cannot cut free from the NHS (though they certainly would if possible) . That is probably explains why Harley St is filled to the brim with gynecologists and not cardiac surgeons.
I listened to a small part of Cameron's speech in which he said no more Scots in the British armed forces. Does this mean all serving Scots in the armed forces will lose their jobs? No more Scots in the British Lions won't bother the Scots or in the Olympic team it won't either.
Very well said, if understated. Let's get this straight. The US health care system is the biggest financial scam in the history of the universe, making even the great US war industry smash-and-grab look like a third rate burglary pulled off by penny ante thugs. HMOs and Big Pharma have paid the powers that be a tiny fraction of their ill-gotten gains in order to get a free hand to rip off the entire country beyond anyone's imagination, including even their own until very recently. My medical insurance, provided by my university employer, who typically are able to get better deals due to their size, is around $3500 per year. I just had a ten minute skin cancer screening, which only involved five minutes of the doctor's time. I owe $267.00 for it. The amount they claim it actually cost is $1300.00. Thirty years ago, a fifteen minute visit to a doctor cost me $5.00 with no insurance. The change to the health care law is that I'm now required to have health insurance. It may--may--be that the new law will begin the process of squeezing the enormous bloated tick that is the US healthcare system. But as of right now, it's sucking harder and harder. I believe the US pays seven times as much for health care per person as Japan (which has a similar per capita income) and gets far worse results (Americans live ten years less on average than Japanese). Furthermore, any politician contemplating moving towards an American system is doing so either because he is the world's biggest poltroon, or, much more likely, because he has had his pockets lined by his own medical establishment, who drool at the thought of imitating the great American medical rip off. Never, under any circumstances, believe that any move towards our system is anything other than an attempt to loot the national treasury on an epic scale.
I have read that Diabetes is the fastest growing illness in the states with scores of thousands increasing every year to its numbers. It costs billions in lost work hours and is what's driving up medical costs due to a terrible diet. Stop the junk food selling, educate the people about the dangers of doughnuts etc and bottled sauces and sugar, sugar, sugar. Deal with the problem at its grass roots level and things would stabilize dramatically. I go to the doctor and pay immediately. He gives me the receipt and I fill in a BUPA form. Three weeks later its in my bank account. Arterial by pass operation 10 years ago in my right leg was dealt with inside a week and the payment within three. Easy. Simplicity itself.
