I can do you a lovely deal ! (The NHS vs Private Health Care)

Member Name: Plumptious

Product:	The NHS vs Private Health Care
Date:	13/03/01 (70 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It can seem reasonable at first.

Disadvantages: Used as a lever to get rid of most of the NHS.

~~~ Once upon a time ~~~

Returning from my Sunday jaunt to B&Q, I passed a row of old terraced housing. Displayed on some of these houses were fire insurance badges. “What on earth are they?” is the normal reaction, running a close second to sheer indifference.

Well, I’m gonna tell you what they are anyway. There was a time when fire insurance meant paying your dues to an insurance company. If and when a fire broke out in your house, the company would send a fire engine round to your house.

If you hadn’t subscribed to such a service, then it was just bad luck, and you would hope that your neighbours liked you enough to help you put out the fire. There would be little point in trying to appeal to the local fire stations. Indeed, fire teams from rival firms were known to look on, ridiculing the efforts of a team trying to put out a fire.


~~~ Today ~~~

Today’s citizen may peruse the items on a poll tax bill with a jaundiced eye, but we tend to take for granted that a nice shiny fire engine will make its efficiently speedy way towards us should we ever need it to.

As all fire engines are paid for out of the public purse, the service as a whole becomes more cost efficient, doing away with distractions such as rivalries, which serve to hinder. In the same way, our health service is paid for out of the public purse, which is kept supplied with contributions from citizens of our nation.

If you can afford it, the option of the paying a little more has become available. This then tends to entitle you to additional benefits such as a private room, better food and suchlike. If you would like to jump the queue, well then, good luck to you if you can afford it. It’s your money after all. The nation could hardly begrudge you for spending your hard earned money on your health, could it?


Some insurance companies even have their own hospitals. By
providing additional beds independent of those run on the public purse, we should be grateful to them for alleviating the burden on the NHS. A patient insured with one of these companies has the choice of using the NHS or exercising their rights to one of these private beds.


~~~ The Flipside ~~~

I remember watching an interview with a gentleman who broke down in tears as he recounted how his wife had died in agony. They had been impressed with the appearance of the private hospital. Instead of the utilitarian furniture of a NHS hospital, there were side tables with Queen Anne legs. A plusher grade of carpet was used. Gourmet meals were available. Above all, the much needed operation was available sooner.

It was in the area of medical care where the rot began start to show. The gentleman’s wife was duly operated on one afternoon. In the early hours of the morning of the day after the surgery, she began to experience intense pain. He buzzed for help. A nursing aide appeared.

The long and short of it was that the pain killers dispensed by the aide did not work. Despite repeated requests for a senior member of the medical staff to examine the patient, none were forthcoming for the simple reason that none were available. In the interest of cost efficiency, only a skeleton staff were retained during the “off peak” hours.

The agony that the man felt was clearly apparent. He had had no idea that such repercussions would result from “going private”. His self castigation for doing so was horrible to watch. He had honestly thought that he was purchasing the best that money could buy for his wife.



It is possible that not all private hospitals are run like that. However, I for one remain scared.
I was told another interesting fact. Most insurance policies have a maximum amount that the policy will pay out in the event that it becomes applicable.

>So your whatchermacallit has broken. Your policy will pay a quarter of a million pounds for it to be fixed. You’re duly operated on, and your whatchermacallit is duly fixed.
During your time being bedbound, complications set in. They’re dealt with. After all, you’re still good for another £50,000.

Unfortunately, you inconsiderately continue to require more medical care. The policy has stopped paying out. You’re unceremoniously downgraded to NHS status. You’re nursed back to health and discharged.

And therein lies the rub. Because you were previously a private patient, when you went back on the NHS, you became liable for the bills run up under NHS care.
This is what I was told. If anyone can refute this, then please do so. I would love it to be untrue.


~~~ I can do you a lovely deal ~~~

Right. Back on terra firma, and facts which I know to be true.
The fact we have to pay for the NHS and then again for private care is a cause of discontent for more than a few. After a while, those monthly insurance premiums can be a bit of a bind. However, they were seen as a necessary good, and years ago, the public was persuaded to take out these insurance policies en masse.

So far so good. Quietly, a masterstroke was accomplished by the government. Unnoticed by many as it involved the doubly boring subject of insurance and tax, a levy on all non-life insurance was introduced. Boring phrase isn’t it?

Massive repercussions, though. Not only do you pay once for the NHS and once for private care, you now also pay the new tax on what you pay for the private care. It is a tax that hitherto did not exist. Check your insurance statement. It will be there, be it insurance against you losing your job (surely that’s what your contributions to the social state were for), insurance for your car or indeed any kind of insurance you have. If it isn’t life
insurance, you pay the new tax.

I did say it was a lovely deal.


~~~ Factionalisation ~~~

Sometimes, the Americans do indeed seem to have everything. The land of milk and honey is indeed bountiful. In this instance, we may look to them for an up and running example of what happens when private hospitals abound.

I’ve heard of a collapsed patient who was brought into hospital. Their policy checked out, and they were stabilised. It was established that a critical operation was required. The insurance company exercised their right to nominate another hospital as the venue for the operation when the best interests of the patient would have been served by sparing them the unnecessary journey and having the operation in the hospital that they were in.

Remember the ridiculous situation with rival fire brigade teams that I described at the beginning of this opinion? We are now encroaching on that type of territory with our healthcare system.


My mother knows a couple, newly married and who have just gone through the happy experience of having a set of twins. Being twins, a few complications were involved. In order to get the care they needed in America, the couple went private. The family is fine, but when the couple took the twins home, the also took a $50,000 bill with them.

My personal view is that the government will continue to squeeze the private citizen for all they can whilst moving towards this very clear cut model of the American health system. A massive rebellion in the way we think and cooperate with this is the only way to stop it happening, but the odds of us doing so are very low.

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