GPs want us to pay for appointments.
GPs will this week demand that NHS patients must pay for routine appointments, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Leading family doctors from across Britain will insist that charging patients for consultations is the only way to end the crisis in general practice – recently described by the British Medical Association as being ‘at breaking point’.
Desperate patients now routinely have to wait three weeks to see their doctor, while surgeries are struggling to recruit as GPs leave in droves.
More than half my income is stolen by the state and pissed up the wall. The NHS is a bureaucratic nightmare riddled with waste and mismanagement. It is not underfunded. The money stolen from us is misspent.
So, fine, you want me to pay at the point of use. Good. Given that I have already paid multiple times over, cut slash my taxes, dismantle the NHS and let me take out my own health insurance to cover my risks.
No?
Well fuck off, then.
I was under the impression that medical practices receive money from the government based upon the number of patients registered with that practice. As that money comes from taxes, i.e. money that you and I have had taken from us, then we are already paying our GPs, whether we see them or not. I haven’t had the need to visit my GP for at least 2 years so, if this ‘request’ is made official, can I claim some money back?
That is the problem, the GP/other NHS parasites gets his/their pay whether or not he/they treat you or you are left suffering/dying on a waiting list.
France. L’Assurance Maladie reimburses up to 70% (80% for in-patient treatment) of medical expenses according to an an agreed scale of charges with providers. (Over 50% of providers are private, but private or not payment is the same), the balance for the patient or they can take out complementary health insurance to cover the difference.
And you have to pay up front then get reimbursed.
The point here is the provider does not get paid unless they see patients. It is in their interests then for GPs (for example) to see patients quickly and offer high quality of service or the patient goes elsewhere. In France you are not wedded to a particular GP so if you cannot get an appointment with one quickly (unusual) you can phone another. They know that which is why waiting lists are uncommon.
There is simply no practical reason why the UK could not operate a similar system.
Instead of tackling the problem of low GP numbers by limiting appointments to those who can afford to pay, perhaps they could address the issue of why GPs are leaving in their droves – government interference? decreased autonomy eg computer refusing to allow them access unless they go through The Lifestyle Questionnaire?
Actually, paying to see the GP is a very good idea, if done properly. I lived in Australia from 1971 to 1979, and when I first got there, the health service was private. You bought insurance (which wasn’t expensive, since everyone did so). What that meant in practice was that if you went to the doctor, you paid $10 per consultation, for which you got a receipt. You then took that receipt to the insurance company office (they were everywhere – it wasn’t a huge chore) and they would give you $8 back, so your doctor’s visit cost $2, which was a nominal sum.
What it did mean, however, was that it cut out all the hypochondriacs, and meant that you could see your doctor when it suited you, within reason. Just that small fee, and the minor inconvenience of having to go out get 80% of your money refunded cut out all the time wasters.
And the hospitals were great. Efficient, caring, well equipped.
Unfortunately, Gough Whitlam (Labour) got into power in 1972, and declared that he was going to create an Australian NHS and take the insurance premiums directly out of our wages to pay for it. Needless to say, the service took a massive nosedive, and I ended up paying for private insurance on top of the money that was taken out of my pay packet for what was essentially the same standard of service I had enjoyed before.
This. Round here (in Texas) an MRI costs $3000 or so. There’s a chain of clinics (in California, of all places) that does them for $300 and still makes a profit.
How? They are a cash (or credit card) business and will have nothing to do with insurance companies. You pay them, get a receipt and getting any reimbursement is on you. Apparently, that saves them so much money on unproductive overhead that they can charge 10% of the going rate while remaining profitable.
I write this not to digress into US matters, but to make the point that administrative bloat and inefficiency is the main driver of healthcare costs, whether in the USA or the UK.
I used to have private health nsurance. It always incensed me that it wasn’t tax deductible as I was freeing space in the NHS and not using something I was paying for.
On the contrary, I see Comrade Corbyn plans to tax the premiums – not now you’ll pay three times if you go private…
In a Sane world anything that you do for yourself that reduces your demands on the state would be tax deductible. Private pensions for example.
I can see how a nominal charge would be a useful way of weeding out time wasters but this would only be acceptable if there was an equivalent reduction in tax. We all know that this would be about as likely as me being made Pope.
In my area the service that we get from the NHS is relatively good. However, the service that we get from the vet is better. Just think, my cats have better healthcare than I do.