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Should We Contribute More to the NHS?

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My last topic 'Failing NHS' got me thinking what can we do to help/save it. I know many people object to paying over what we give in taxes but what if we lose it?

OAPs, children and those on benefits should be exempt but I truly feel those who can should donate what they can afford to boost the service.

I would be happy to stick a fiver in a donation box in my doctor's surgery so they could buy up to date equipment.

Same if I went to casualty. I am lucky that £10 or £20 would not leave me broke and again the money could pay for an extra member of staff or equipment over a year.

Or how about one night a year televised charity event or money from the lottery?

I know we shouldn't have to but should we let it collapse in order to stick to a principal?

Lynibis
over a year ago
What do you think of this?+20 points
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Mango4

Whilst I think it is a good idea in principal to pay a small fee if you use the services and can afford to , for your doctor or hospital appointments/treatment, in practice greed would soon take over and it would not be very long before those small fees were increased time and time again , until the amount became too much for many people. Equally the problem with donations is you never truly know where the money is spent and on what, not always where or how you anticipated when you gave the money .

The NHS is a brilliant asset to us and provides a great service it definitely needs more money, but not sure I have the answer as to from where.

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Lynibis

Can see your point, but I only gave amounts as a guideline and it should purely be donation based on what you can afford. I also truly agree with the not knowing where it goes issue but the surgery/hospital should put up a poster every so often with the amount raised and what was bought. No money should go on admin as it really shouldn't be necessary.

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Johnny

Stick 1p a litre on petrol, that way almost everyone contributes with little pain.

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Mango4

Where does the money raised from plastic carrier bags go, perhaps some of that could go towards the NHS.

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Lynibis

So many things like that could help. I assume the supermarket gets it as they have to pay for the bags initially. Or it goes to a government incentive for recycling. I guess supermarkets had to pay for the previous free ones and offset the cost somehow so would hate to think they get the money now.

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sarahgreen15

I cant speak for every company but Boots give their bag sales to Macmillan

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kikogpe
Mentor

A public health system is much more complex than just money. Virtually every country that has one has problems with financing it.

In the long run, the population always tends to increase, but public services never keep up with this growth in real time, which eventually overwhelms it.

A current example is poor diet and childhood obesity. All these children who today suffer from problems formerly seen only in adults, will overload the system from an early age and will continue to do so in adulthood due to all the problems related to this. Every public policy that is no longer applied today will reflect on the services of the future, with the health system being hit the hardest.

A few weeks ago the figures from HMRC showed that 43% of adults in the UK are not paying Income Tax. If you go to make the other 56% increasingly pay taxes to support this system (which virtually already happens, a flattening working class) will create another major problem as it will have tax payers close to being unable to do so.

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Lynibis

I agree with all you said but as below, the government needs to be more selective in the health care it gives and stop over the counter meds being prescribed by doctors. It doesn't sound much but would save loads.

The population is growing because there is a far lower mortality rate at birth and we are keeping old folk alive a lot longer. Old folk are still getting age related diseases but we have drugs to keep us alive whereas a few generations ago we would have died quickly from a lot of them. As an older person myself, I would much sooner die whilst still able bodied and sound of mind than linger on drugged up sitting around in a care home, which is adding to the bill for all of us.

This is the main reason I don't like them keep raising retirement age: Yes people are living longer but are not necessarily any fitter and can find it hard to do a full day's work. Maybe they should consider jobs for the elderly that are 3 day weeks, Monday, Wednesday and Friday or 5 mornings or afternoons.

As for births, the same can be said for the terrible disabilities that babies no longer die from. They are kept alive due to the strides in medicine but many have no quality of life and spend their whole life needing 24/7 care which costs a fortune. Previously children were looked after by family alone but now the state carries the burden and there are many schools that cater for them, again costing millions. I am part of that work on the transport side, a hidden cost that everyone forgets about, transporting these children, and later as adults, to and from school and day centres. But there is no answer when you live in a humane society. Some of the less severely disabled can learn from these institutions but many are beyond any type of help and will learn nothing that will help them in the future after years of attendance. They are basically respite care for the parents.

I don't have any answers and even if I did they would not be implemented but I am sure a government committee could come up with ways to save money and bring more in to the NHS.

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sarahgreen15

I think thats a good idea, but maybe even more importantly, people need to stop abusing the NHS. I would never go to A&E for anything that wasn’t an emergency, but i was recently there after breaking a bone playing netball, and the number of people sat in there that looked completely fine... it was a 4 hour wait and no one looked visibly ill or injured, out of around 50 people...

equally, in Scotland, where we get ”free“ prescriptions, people abuse the hell out of it - “may as well get it on prescription coz it’s free”, SOMEONE HAS TO PAY! I work in a pharmacy and the number of patients getting 15+ types of medication on repeat, like paracetamol, aspirin, voltorol gel etc... something needs to change otherwise bye bye NHS.

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Lynibis

Totally agree. But unless we get stricter with people it will never change and if we get stricter they run to the newspapers or their MP screaming about their rights. The medications that are available over the counter should not be prescribed....full stop. They find the money for cigarettes, booze and other non necessities so should find less than a pound for aspirin.

I know someone with lung breathing problems who after a night in hospital stepped outside next morning and lit a cigarette. Years later he has finally stopped but is now eating chocolate bars for England. He has cupboards full of them and has now developed diabetes 2. When his wife tries to stop him he just tells her not to worry the doctor can just give him more Metformin!!!!

I was prediabetic, went on a diet, cut out sugar, lost 20lbs and now back to normal. I hate it when people won't take charge of their own health.

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sunny101

I know my comments will not be popular but you did ask for opinions. I would happily make an extra contribution if I thought that the NHS did their very best to recoup the monies owed to them. As it stands three out of four health tourists fail to pay their bills although they enjoyed our treatment and were improved by our system.

(from a recent article - ' The shocking discovery makes a mockery of repeated Government attempts to crack down on the "debt dodgers" who are estimated to cost the NHS up to £280million a year. ')

The amount outstanding, each year, is obscene. I don't know if this is down to the legal teams within the NHS but they need to make a difference and do their job or be replaced as the workers are working harder and the rewards are few.

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Lynibis

I think you would be hard put to find anyone who would disagree with that angemski. I recently read a headline which went, as far as I can remember, something like: 78% OF NHS DOCTORS VOTE AGAINST RECLAIMING MILLIONS OWED BY HEALTH TOURISTS. I was too shocked to want to read the actual article.

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sunny101

Lynibis That is shocking...... and the nurses work on and have little say.

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kikogpe
Mentor

Lynibis It is an extremely complicated subject. You have the human side, where you need to protect people's lives and health, and you have the rational side. A famous case is of a Nigerian woman who has already arrived in the UK in labor and had quadruplets, leaving a debt of over 200k. The human side says we should be ready to pay for it, but the rational side also says that many people who help pay for it can barely make it to the end of the month and pay for their own food.

For example, if a family cannot afford to raise a single child, yet chooses to have 5 or 6 children, why should other taxpayers have to pay for it, having difficulty paying for their own lives?

Everything in life is balance, and as the welfare is necessary, charge responsibility of the people are too. Nothing is free, the government does not generate wealth, every penny is the result of people's work. Unfortunately we are divided between politicians who believe that welfare is not necessary and those who believe that the government can pay for absolutely all individual decisions without charging anything in return.

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Lynibis

kikogpe I remember that case well.

And don't get me started on kids. As most know by now I work on transport for kids in care and even with 1, 2 or 3 children in care parents often go on on to have 5 or 6 or more and I have known three families with 9 and 10! This costs the state a fortune as foster carers get paid a lot of money for each child, tax free.

If you have more than one child in care you should be sterilised, but of course that is against their 'human rights'. But what of a child's human rights to a decent home life with parents who care?

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Johnny

Increases in the rates of income tax, National Insurance contributions (NICs) or VAT could raise substantial sums.

Adding 1 percentage point to income tax rates, or all employee and self-employed NICs rates, or the main rate of VAT, would each raise a similar amount – about £6 billion.

In all cases, the revenue would come disproportionately from higher-income households (truer for income tax and NICs than it is for VAT).

Which one would you prefer to see an extra 1% added to?

a) Income Tax

b) Employee and self-employed NICs rate

c) VAT

Personally I would prefer to see the extra revenue needed being raised using a method where almost everyone has to contribute (not just income tax payers) and which is hard to avoid. Such as by increasing the VAT rate, adding 1p on Petrol, or 1p on ATM withdrawals, or introducing more motorway tolls. There are millions of people in this country who avoid paying income tax, working cash in hand, who really ought to be contributing to the NHS etc.

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PhilipMarc

NHS should be retweaked. That is, it's no longer "free" for anyone except over 60 to 75 and higher years old while the rest should pay a percentage depending on their situation.

"Free" health care only works if everyone agreed in doing it right. Sometimes not having it is for the better so people don't take it for granted.

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Lynibis

Health tourist' leaves behind £623,000 unpaid NHS bill https://mol.im/a/7442619 via http://dailym.ai/android

Just saw this online, makes my blood boil. They must have realised beforehand that most people could not afford that and if they could they would go private. How many people could have received 'too expensive' cancer drugs for that money. angemski

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sunny101

Lynibis It's been something that has bothered me for many years. If they totted up how much the NHS has lost through Health Tourism in the last decade it would make your head spin.

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MrsCraig

I would be more than happy to contribute more to the NHS. Given the 2 surgeries my son has had and all the specialist care he has had, the ongoing scans and the medication he is on, I dread to think of the cost. In Scotland we get prescriptions free, considering his need to be specially ordered I would have no problem paying for them.

It isn't just the amount of money that the NHS gets that needs to be looked at but how it is actually used and claiming back money that they are owed. How about we take away the massive pay rises of the MPs and cap their expenses and put that money into the NHS, education, the police, housing etc

I will always be extremely grateful for what the NHS has done for my son and for me during my pregnancy and I would happily pay a bit more tax, as long as I knew it was going to the NHS.

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PhilipMarc

NHS is on trouble as it seems so what they should do is go semi-private, i.e., make the appointments cost a fee and anything else the patient should pay. Those for example who are financially 'fragmented' could be offered different options of payment. The NHS isn't "free" so if people need it, they should be able to afford it (govt should be able to cover some of it if the patient is eligible).

Folks in countries where they even have "free" healthcare tend to prefer private for a better service and shorter waiting times.

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SaverDeals

I absolutely think we should contribute more to the NHS, although it may not necessarily be with money, but also time. If we all did more volunteering like the Hospital project, I think it would be a really good thing.

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