Matthew Parris wrote an article last week about how the UK Clint afford to keep lying to itself including how ppl earning a decent wage couldn’t expect free at the point of use healthcare. But this misses who is actually expensive for the NHS to treat
Working aged people in employment are already largely “paying in” more than they’re using. Charging them for their 5-10 GP visits a year is….not going to do a thing. The group that uses loads of expensive healthcare is the over 75s with multi-morbidity.
This group is using lots of healthcare largely because the social care system is even more broken and can’t provide what they need. And it’s worth remembering that social care is the bit that is already non universal, means tested and largely provided by private providers.
And as Dilnot already set out the reason is that no private insurance will accept the huge risks involved in this group of people. And these people aren’t working & none of us can save up the £ needed individually. The only institution that can deal with this is…the govt.
There are answers, Dilnot is already on the statute books! They don’t all involve making everything the NHS either. You can have a more means tested & private system. But the key bit is, given who actually is expensive to treat, that taxes will always be involved
And this is the bit that has been repeatedly ducked. Getting more tax revenue from people no longer working. Given how often the NHS has been reformed the idea it’s untouchable is a bit of laugh. The real sacred cow of British politics is pensioner wealth.
@nickhassey Pensioner wealth is a relatively new phenomenon, largely the result of house price inflation. As the baby boomers die, pensioner poverty will re-emerge as defined DB pensions vanish and the contributions made to DC schemes by most workers are totally inadequate.
@GrahamEvans2 @nickhassey Exactly that! Which is why everyone should be fighting to increase NI contributions, not remove them. The state pension will disappear, along with the NHS if NI is abolished like Hunt is planning.