NHS chiefs in Scotland discuss having wealthy pay for treatment

25 comments
  1. Imho it’s a slippery slope charging for access to the nhs. Rich should pay higher taxes but everyone should be treated for free by the NHS. Most wealthy people have private healthcare anyway but that’s not the point.

  2. In theory I support the idea if everyone still gets the same level of healthcare. Letting the rich pay more for the same healthcare but with better cosmetics helps everyone and is similar to how Singapore provides healthcare.

    In practice however, our hospitals are already designed and built without considering the extra amenities in mind. Using Singapore as an example again, the rich can choose to stay in a room by themselves and get premium treatment. Over here, we are struggling to get enough beds! How many empty rooms are there in our hospitals?

    How are we going to convince the rich to pay without compromising the level of healthcare of others? I’m afraid that there is no feasible way of encouraging the rich to pay unless it’s to skip the queue (like what they can and are currently doing right now).

    If they push with this idea, the NHS will need significant investment. Which it already needs anyways.

  3. how about we charge the rich a fee, perhaps a percentage on their income and earnings which we can put towards some central fund that representatives can then portion out to where it is needed in public services

  4. This is very clickbaity – a lot of discussions about a lot of things go on behind closed doors at every organisation.

    This idea is straight up dumb and would be the beginning of the end of the NHS.

  5. Absolutely not. Everyone pays in, everyone gets healthcare for free, from the homeless on the street, to the multi-billionaire.

  6. Reading the article it’s talking about the concept being tabled at a CG meeting. That’s a far cry from considering a change in public policy.

  7. Medical insurance costs 2-3 thousand pounds a year and many get this provided as part of their salary package – usually 10-15% of people are covered, and as that excludes anyone retired, it’s a bigger proportion of the actual workforce.

    If we ask rich people to pay extra, they will just go private – a lot already do. If the NHS becomes a service for just the poor and old, it will get a lot worse.

  8. Fuck this. People complain the tories are going to privatise the nhs?

    Rich people pay more tax anyway well they are supposed to.

    The richest of the rich will have private health care regardless

    Nhs free at point if use end of no if buts or maybes.

    Also define rich? Who makes that call? We have just seen middle earners cleaned out.

    You start this it will end badly. Just for context a asthma inhaler in the us is $300..

  9. Absolutely terrible idea, NHS free for all at the point of use!!! Protect this at all costs otherwise we will fall into a US style dystopia.

  10. No just no. If they are rich enough and want to pay for private care, then let them, if they don’t then don’t charge them

  11. Nope. As a poor person, absolutely not. Tomorrow it’s the rich paying for treatment. Next month it’s poor people not able to get treated because they can’t afford it. I bet if this was the case, our taxes would come down, right? *RIGHT?!?!?*

    Fuck the cunts that run this country.

  12. I can’t agree with this. Sure, the wealthy should contribute more but that should be via taxes. The NHS should remain free at the point of access for all, otherwise you’re entering a slippery slope. It’ll start off with only people over X income paying, but the threshold will gradually lower until everyone has to pay.

  13. I wouldn’t support this, I think it moves towards a paid system, and in reality a lot of the rich will be on private anyway. Also I don’t think those who need treatment should have to pay out of principle, regardless of means. I’d much rather see an increase in general taxation above a certain threshold.

  14. The wealthy already do pay for their healthcare. There isn’t a fucking chance they’ll consider a job with a company not offering private insurance.

  15. Totally wrong concept. If one kind of people that needed to pay, are the smokers and heavy drinker. Billions spent on treating cancers that would have not existed in the first place. Oh, and the A&E service used by drunk drivers and drunk brawls.

  16. So NHS Chiefs are seeking to re-introduce the means tested system that failed in the 1930s and led directly to the NHS. Why not just raise taxes on the wealthy and cut out the decades of futility?

  17. This is an absolutely terrible idea for many reasons, but the most significant one is this:

    If the Rich have to pay for the NHS, they will go Private instead. (they already do, but even more will)

    Once the rich have all gone private, it is no longer in their interest to fund the NHS since they aren’t getting any benefit

    The rich control politics, if they have no vested interest in keeping the NHS alive since they get no benefit from it anyway, might as well gut it more and more.

    I propose the opposite solution. Ban Private Health care. either NHS or not at all. This will mean that the people at the top who actually MAKE these decisions will now have a vested interest in keeping the system going, instead of them all having private, and not giving two shits what happens to the NHS, so they can continue destroying it. It will also mean that it’s no longer much more profitable for doctors to go private the second they get qualified since NHS salaries are often much smaller than private alternatives.

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