COVID-19

Apologies, I was referring to Craven Cottagers post

 

Thanks for your insight based on real world experience. My assumptions were that health insurance plans replaced the need for state care such as the NHS.
Needless to say if you are actually saying that a free health service out performs a paid for system then I think that tells us why the NHS budgets are never enough and never will be.

 

Loyal - others may see it differently, the comments in my post are only based on my personal experience and having 2 nurses in the family.

 

Ouch.

 

Some councils eg Nottingham charge the company for every parking space they have. Nottingham tax each space at about £400 pa.

 

Reading your original post I was not aware once you paid for your health care there were add ons for the likes of CT or MRI scans plus doctors bills, just what cover do you have included in your monthly/annual payment.
Sounds a great system if you're wealthy.

 

The last time mum required hospital one of the carers took her to the BRI in an ambulance, rang me or our lad to sit with her allowing the carer to return to the care home.
When discharged we had to wait for an ambulance to take here back to the care home, I was told because she was brought in an ambulance she had to go back in one.
Having a chat with the driver he told me the ambulance he drove was a private company rather than a NHS ambulance I believe he said all ambulances were privately owned ?, was this another great decision taken under Blair watch ?.

 

Mum and Aunt started their nursing training in the year the NHS began, and finished their careers here in the Canadian equivalent. Various relatives lived in the US, and experienced the healthcare system there. I can only repeat, with great emphasis, what TB wrote: be careful what you wish for. There is amazing technology and treatment available in the States, but the private, for-profit nature of the system weights the system very strongly in favour of the rich, and healthy -- and leads to overcharging and other abuses. Health insurance can be very expensive, and exclusions abound.

Two examples from my own life. Major life-saving surgery many years ago cost me all of a few hundred dollars for upgrading to a semi-private room, and getting a tv in there. In the States I very much fear I would have been bankrupted, and probably dead to boot, owing many hundreds of thousands -- it was a pre-existing condition that flared up, and that may well have barred me from insurance. Then, I had my cataracts out a few years ago. Again, a few hundred dollars for upgraded lenses and the various drugs needed -- the provincial health plan covers standard lenses, but not drugs. I don't know the exact costs in the US, but I once read $10,000 per eye just for the operations. While I have the money, it is all part of my investments to see me through my later years.

And the cost of this provincial health plan to me: $0! Admittedly, that is because my income falls below the minimum threshold at which you have to contribute a bit. But the contributions are not onerous -- the very top rate is only about $900 a year, and if you are paying that, it will be a barely noticeable expense for you.

The public health systems, here and back home, are to be treasured. And despite what some might feel about socialism, they are very much socialistic/communistic in conception and funding!

RCB

 

Hooch, think you bring some well thought out balance to this debate for which I applaud. But Owen Jones is a grade A bell end.

 

Mate get your in laws togo here https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators or phone 0800 055 6688 and ask the DWP directly what they may be entitled to.

Its simple to find out and easily accessible.

 

He has his moments, I agree. That particular passage is spot on though.

 

Interesting read
https://nationalpost.com/pmn/health-pmn/johnson-listened-to-his-scientists-about-coronavirus-but-they-were-slow-to-sound-the-alarm-2

 

Indeed! Our NHS system should be treasured and not abused.
It’s use should be limited to UK nationals and those with valid working visas.
Visitors to the UK should have appropriate travel insurance as we do when we travel abroad.
Emergency care should always be free to all regardless of how much anyone has paid in but routine aftercare and operations should be limited to those who have or are currently paying into the system through NI contributions.
Reform of how the NHS is used is the only way to control the spiralling costs and maintaining it as a viable service for years to come whilst paying the staff who work in the NHS a fair wage for what they do.

 

Also, remember it was the doctors union that voted against stopping healthcare tourism for some strange reason...

 

Tennessee - I worked at a health insurance company in Boston. It's scary. I worked in claims and it is genuinely awful. The NHS is the crown jewel of everything that is great in Britain. Anyone wanting it abolished has never lived under another system.

There are obvious deficiencies within the NHS for multiple reasons. But it doesn't mean it isn't an effective service at the point of need. Privatizing it cannot and should not be an option.

 

It’s all a bit of a task tbh - I got them some legal advise, they had a meeting and they threatened to cut other benefits they were on - so despite the legal backup I financed, and would continue to do, they decided they didn’t want to do anything.
....you can take a horse to water, and all that....

 

I remember problems we had with the working tax credit stuff. Did everything we were advised to do to the letter, acouple of months later we get a cheque for over a grand. That sceptical we stuck the cheque in a seperate bank account and left it for about a year. About 4 years later we get a letter demanding nearly 5 grand back, basically accusing us of fraud. I was livid, tried everything but no help at all. One of reasons i have no faith at all that they will get this Corona payments thing right. It will just be one big fck up.

 

Speaking of payments be interesting to see how this $1200 from the federal government works out.

 

Is it a loan?

 

Don't believe so - everyone that is a citizen or a permanent resident will receive it. I haven't really read up on it. I don't believe I will be eligible.