With respect that's a big steamy pile of **** in regards to businesses tendering for services (or at least for non-medical services). I've been a salesman for facilities management businesses and sold services to the NHS. The idea that only the highly profitable stuff is tendered for is just imaginary. There's huge competition even for contracts that won't make any money at all. And the emphasis is always on price and not quality. That emphasis given by the NHS, not the private companies. Also the reason the services are fragmented is often due to poor decision makng by the NHS. Plenty of businesses tender for multiple lots when services go up for tender and regularly the NHS will choose to go for a handful of different contractors based solely on price, ignoring efficiency or quality. The problems with the tendering process are on the side of the public sector, not the private sector.
Exactly. The rich probably could do Health cheaper without the NHS. There's probably a lot of things they could do cheaper solo. The vast majority of people are better off as one: pooling the resources. If you take the rich out of the equation. If they "opt out" of public responsibilities to go alone. All of a sudden the majority of people have a lot more expenses. If they're spending more money or worse health care that's less money for training and other things. The rich may say. "That's not our fault. Doesn't hurt us" but it does. The less well off, the less money the poor and middle have for training, health, etc, the less productive a country becomes. A poor, demoralised, sick, untrained country is going to be less productive than a trained, healthy, educate country. Domestic stocks go down. Security risks go up. Even political extremism risk rises. If the poor has no money they have no money to buy the goods the factories of the rich produces. It's in the rich's best interest the poor and middle don't get TOO poor.
You're right of course. I was merely making a devils advocate response, albeit - joking aside I do resent the amount I pay for a service that I don't use. I have private healthcare and couldn't get NHS dentistry in my area, so I pay for that aswell. It does grate, especially when I see the system failures and inadequacies with my own eyes.
I've also tendered for NHS and local authority business and you're bang right. One of the most farcical elements that I've encountered is public depts being forced to spend their annual capital expenditure budget, as if they didn't they couldn't carry it over, and wouldn't have had it replicated in the following years budget! So they spent money on high cost capital equipment that they didn't really need, in order to protect their pot for next year.
You could work for the Daily Mail lad. What if I paid a tad more on my monthly premium and covered any excess? Possible, yes?
It's a very common statistic quoted in media. We (the US) pay between 200% more to 250% more on healthcare than any other industrialised nation. We also have highest infant mortality and lowest life expectancy of any industrialised nation. We also have highest incidence of untreated chronic diseases of any industrialised nation. All the above is a result of the insurance driven medical model. Heres the first article I found googling. There are many many more out there: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/health-costs-how-the-us-compares-with-other-countries/
Those are per capita costs for the Nation, not what the average individual pays in inusrance. A quick look through that piece gives a clue as to why your overall health expenditure is spiralling btw. 36% of you (and rising) are fat ****ers.
Some diseases and illnesses are ignored outside the US. Try getting proper care and treatment on the NHS for Pernicious Anemia, Huntington's Disease, fibremygela (spelling). Our doctors wouldnt even know what they were. Breeze on private healthcare over here though. I can't remember the number of times people have had to try and raise thousands of pounds to sebe children to America for operations that the NHS refuse to do due to costs or lack of capable staff. The problem with the NHS as it is, is that nobody is really accountable. Its all done by the book, nobody thinks for themselves. Doctors only recognise familiar illness and disease, not rare ones. The US is miles ahead of us in that sense.
It's really not. There are more untreated chronic diseases in the US than any other major industrialised nation. Many people just live with diseases rather than get them treated because of the costs. I do ok for myself financially. I'm not rich but I make more than the average family income... I even work in a hospital. ... I don't go to the doctor every time I get sick. If I get the flu I stay home. I have to be in a really bad way to seek medical help. I do my annual physical once every three years. I make sure my kids go to the doctor when needed but I skimp on myself because it's too expensive... Too expensive to spend $300 to be told to rest and take plenty of fluids. I know that already. ... It's too expensive for me and I make more than average. I would never deprive my kids medical care because as they're developing they are so much more at risk than adults... But lots of families. Middle class families with insurance even, who won't take their kids to the doctor when they get sick. I have co-workers who I know that do this. Well paid co-workers who don't want the expense. You simply don't have concerns like that when healthcare is covered by the government.
I think this debate has wandered off on a tangent somewhat. As we're now into a direct comparison between a national health service and a privately funded model. I suppose your perspective is going to be different, dependant on which side of the fence you're stood on and what the net impact is on your pocket every month. Not to mention, whetheryou've had or need ongoing care. I have utmost respect for people who work in the caring profession and I know their jobs are bloody tough. My original point was that as someone who runs a decent sized service lead business, I can see how someone with my skill set could help drive efficiencies for both patients and staff, within the existing system, without simply throwing additional resource at it. A system like the NHS will just devour as much money as you chuck at it. It's time we stood back a bit and decided what it needs to look like for the next 20-30 years, with the increased challenges of increased life expectancy, medical advancement etc, as the current model needs reform and it's unsustainable imo.
No, you really are miles ahead. Doctors advise you don't take your kids to the GP of they are sick, or to hospital. They tell you to go to a chemist. Unless it gets really bad, then you get an appointment a week down the line, by which time its cleared up anyway... Or you end up sat on a hospital, for hours, to be told to get some rest, of for them to book you in to another appointment with your normal doctor.... So people don't bother. If people get a cold they go to work, so then the whole work place ends up ill. People get bugs and go to work, use the same cups and spoons as everyone else, coughing away, making everyone else ill. Today's NHS is like a US free clinic. People go for the most ridiculous reasons, clogging it up and raising costs significantly.
Its simply open to abuse. As you see every single day at every GP surgery and every Hospital. GP are drowning in appointments for colds or a sore elbow. There's also far to many GPs who are just clueless. I've seen then google stuff, genuinely google to get an answer. It's as farcical as the old Soda magic concoction days when Coke and Dr Pepper were seen as medicines.
I'm referring specifically to clinical provision. But I've seen massive waste and administrative inefficiencies in tendering out secondary services to the private sector. In a nutshell it costs the NHS more to buy in services from outside than it does to provide it themselves. Although there are some services which I agree make more sense to bring a specialist provider in for. I do also agree wth tobes that there is a farcical waste where NHS depts have to spend their captital budgets up to the full spend or risk having it slashed from their budgets in the flowing year.
It certainly has. We are supposed to be taking the piss out of CFC and HIAG for the failed wum attempt that this thread was
Post #15. PIXIE, PIXIE, PIXIE !!!!! Like I said, I don't have to bullshit about 'Jetting off to the States'
