Bo and I have just been talking about tax and stuff and I was thinking... is it better to pay less tax, but pay medical insurance and have private medical care? Or is it better to pay more tax and have a public health authority?
Having studied the NHS at Higher level (that's A-Level to English people, no idea for the US I'm afraid), I think it's good in theory, but not always in practice. I'll state my findings for an NHS type system...

Bevan founded the NHS in 1948 stating that there would be 'universal care for all'. Everyone has access to medical care, no matter who they are and what they earn. No insurance premiums are needed and even if you don't have a job, you can still be taken care of and all treatments are paid for by the tax taken from working people. Those who work pay for their prescriptions, those who don't, don't have to as this is paid for by the tax revenue again. There are also people like me, with long term medical conditions who, without medication, will die, so we also get our prescriptions from the tax and not paying for it individually.

The only qualms I have about the NHS are
1. asthmatics do not get free prescriptions,
2. dental treatment has to be paid for in most cases,
3. hospitals are dirty, staff have a 'don't care' attitude as they are under paid, under staffed and underappreciated,
4. money is wasted in sectors that do not require it. I can say this now as I do not work for the NHS anymore, but it's ridiculous the amount that is wasted. i.e. at the beginning of March 2002, financial year end is April 1st, we had £2million in our budget spare for the finance department, so instead of saying "oh we don't need so much next year." they buy the whole building new pcs then transfer money over into another Primary Care Trust's account who were over budget for the year! This is wrong in my opinion. Just because the money has been allocated, does not mean that we should use most of it, then what's left!

Does anyone else want to dive in? :)

I chat in Cancer chat on yahoo a lot. Ive heard stories of the wait for life saving tests that we in the US take for granted. It's scary that someone may be diagnosed with cancer but have to wait 3, 4, 5, or even 6 months sometimes to get the tests to find out how far their cancer has spread...and what the approprite treatment is. (In a lot of cases treatment is based on stages.)

In my experience...having private insurance definitely saved my life. Without it, stem cell transplant would not have been an option and I wouldnt be here to debate this topic.

I agree lanna! Here in the U.S. we hear of all these horror stories about how our hospitals and doctors charge too much and insurance companies are creating problems, but we do have great docs and hospitals. I know there are people who don't have private insurance and that is a huge problem.

I have heard the stories of 4 mos or so waiting to get into a doc for something like a sinus infection! :( I can't stand one of those for 4 days!

My husband's insurance doesn't have optical or dental which can really take a bite out of our money, but in the long run we've used our insurance quite a bit. both kids were ill and in the hospital as infants, I was hospitalized before I had my son, Luke has been through testing for his ADHD and we have to go to the doc's often for his checkups.

I hate trying to figure out all the paperwork tho! :wacko:

The few occasions I've had to use the NHS (usually when my daughter's possibly broken something) I spend the whole time I'm there growling about how totally inefficiently it's run, how depressing it is and basically what a waste of time 90% of what happens there is.

I know too many people suffering and dying because the NHS can't deal with them in time :angry: . Thea's grandmother on her Dad's side has cancer right now and she hasn't even got a date for starting to treat her yet :angry: :( :angry: and I could name a score of other cases that I know personally.

I choose to deal with my health alternatively (which basically means privately as there's no NHS coverage for alternative treatments except osteopathy) and if I (or Thea) did ever need allopathic treatment or ops I'd choose private every time (and I live on a pretty low income so it would involve taking out loans)

My parents have private insurance but because their doctor recommended they wait for an NHS op rather than have it done privately (even though it was an urgent case) because she'd have been done in two months <_< and they chose to go private anyway because two months still seemed to long, they had to pay in full for the operation. Personally I'd have changed my doctor as she seemed a total idiot anyway :angry: but Mum says she doesn't see her enough to bother.

By the way Ang if they don't use their allocation in full for each year it's cut for the year after by that amount at least, but you'd think they could have thought of a better way of using it :confused: .

Just thought of another thing, I'm technically allowed an NHS dentist and free treatment, but since there aren't any available anywhere in Wales I have to go private anyway!

Yes I could rant for some time about this :P

Yup, it's the same with schools too. If you don't use it, you lose it... why then, 2 years in a row were we millions of pounds in credit?! Why not take the cut, then ask for the correct amount instead of wasting it?! It used to really annoy me!
I have plenty to rant about the nhs, the diabetic clinic actually lost me for a year and a half... they renewed their computer system and I was lost in the transfer... I've always had pretty good doctors who know their stuff though, so I can't complain about that.
I think the NHS is needed in this country though. We are the worst in Europe for cases of heart disease, etc, because of everyone eating fatty, salty, processed foods for dinner every night instead of proper food and lack of exercise. Those in the worst financial positions have the worst health, therefor I think we need it to treat those who cannot afford private.
Dan used to get private health insurance through his work, butthe tax that was taken from him because of it was enormous, so he stopped it. It also would've cost another £400 a year for me to be added and it just wasn't worth it when we didn't use it. I think it'd be different if we had kids or that though.
I had a dream about a dentist last night... eugh, it was horrible! :ph43r:

I am so dismayed with the NHS. I need treatment for something that IS available on the NHS, but is ONLY available on the NHS if you live in the correct postcode area. So if I lived say a hundred miles north of where I do, I could get my free NHS treatment.

As it is there is no funding in the county of Cornwall where I live for the treatment I need. So I have had to spend nearly thirteen thousand pounds (so far) on the treatment I need as I am forced to go private. (We raise this money by living in our 12x10ft garden shed over the summer months and let out the house to summer visitors).

The government has some funny ideas about a fair system of health care. Also Cornwall is quite a deprived county with tourism as the main earner for the majority. So it has a few months of a summer tourist season and then in the winter it is pretty quiet with alot of people out of work.

I am constantly lobbying members of Parliament about the unfair health care system of the UK when it comes to some types of medical treatments. As it happens I have the local newspaper coming to interview me tomorrow about all this.