(There may be more than one Anonymous and I'm getting confused but it's an interesting topic.)
- Anonymous said...
- Yes, and me!
I estimate my own contributions since 1965 at less than £90,000, out of which more than a few grand has paid for the usual CHEAP prescriptions until aged 60 (some items can cost £50 per tablet), GP and other services, and free dental treatment but only reduced optical treatment.
HISTORY WE ARE ENCOURAGED TO FORGET
It is amazing that when this NHS was created in 1948, all prescriptions had no charge. In 1956, a very unpopular introduction of one shilling for any number of items could have destroyed the government. The Labour opposition (the party who invented the NHS) rightly went bananas. Thankfully, the bunch of idiots in charge was later destroyed by the very reason that they introduced the charge – it was not a health policy at all, it was to fund the “Suez War” which – I believe – is now over, just like the Napoleonic Wars which needed funding from a new tax on income. Strange how both Tory AND Labour continued the prescription charge since 1956...
I also had a cheap operation (excision of a saliva gland), a bargain at £12,000 in 2000. My last bargain was a 2009 mitral valve repair, worth (wait for it…..) “Well over £60,000 but less than £100,000” - but I wasn’t supposed to know that!
Tot up that lot as well as yours and we can all see what a superb system we really have – probably why Cameron wants to destroy it.
My only worry is that because the NHS was devised to benefit only the UK population who paid in advance every week/month, we could never afford from 1948 to GIVE (repeat – GIVE, as in genuinely FREE) all of these treatments to visitors and outsiders who pay no tax or NI. The pot was NEVER big enough! If money is so tight now, surely we should cease being the world’s free health care provider? No other country in the world with or without “social medicine” gives it away free to non-residents – so why us? Other than EU arrangements, should we not charge foreign citizens (or their governments) the same way they charge UK citizens who have treatment in those countries? Look no further for an example than the citizens of your favourite – The USA!
Anonymous strikes again!
- Anonymous said...
- The NHS is funded out of general taxation, not "NHI". The deductions from salary are National Incursnce Contributions which count for contributory benefits such as Retirement Pension.
- Anonymous said...
- Bollocks! Funding is PARTLY from "general taxation" - the rest IS from the NI (or NHI) contributions deducted from pay, which do fund certain other benefits as well. NI contributions are most definitely NOT only used for contributory benefits.
There is a strong clue in the letter 'H'......
Some checking of history books is clearly needed here. For now, I present a quote from a stiff looking Labour minister who presented the basis of the NHS/Wefare State in a 1946 public information film shown then in cinemas.
"You will receive all these things free of charge, but of course they do have to be paid for. For this, all we ask from you is a few shillings a week out of your wage packet..." That is the base principle that still operates, despite "Anonymous" attempting to give the impression I'm being corrected by him/her/it.
By the way, when this same minister said "Free health care fort all, from cradle to the grave", he meant all the resident population of the UK, not all the world. As early as 1948, "health tourists" were identified....
The REAL Anonymous
BEWARE OF IMITATIONS!
- Anonymous said...
- Ho hum. I concede the honourable gentleman's point that there has always been a small proportion of the NI deduction allocated to the NHS, but not directly from the NI Fund. The majority of the funding of the NHS comes from general taxation. Your payslip may have an "H" on it. Mine doesn't, it refers to "NICs".
The founding principles of the NHS are a long way off and have been fiddled with by governments of all colours, and the present incumbents are equally determined to wreak their havoc.
More Anonymous Than You
- Anonymous said...
- Yes, all quite true - and I wonder which party would ever dare state its intention to "wreak their havoc" at the top of an election manifesto? The last honest PM we ever had (well, mainly honest) was John Major, who stated quite forcefully: "The NHS is safe in my hands" - and it was - until Bliar and the New Fascist Tyrant Party took over!
