March 29, 2024

News Cymru

Two sides to every headline

NHS More Expensive Than Private Healthcare – Official

The NHS has been more expensive than private healthcare for a while. But today is the first day I saw the actual figures.

I have covered this point in a previous article but I thought it was worth expanding upon.

NHS more expensive than going private, fact

Here are the facts.

Health care absorbs 17% of the UK governments tax revenue.

The average cost of a health insurance policy is around 750 pounds a year.

a healthy 40-year-old male with no dependants will be charged £500-£750 a year for PMI with restrictions around the amount of out-patient care offered.

A luxury plan with no restrictions, such as Axa PPP’s “Premier” will cost a 40-year-old in London more than £1,500 a year

Okay, so what does 17% work out at for someone earning 15,000GBP a year?

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At a minimum 50% of everyone’s in income in the UK goes to the government. 20% VAT, 20% income tax, 10% National Insurance. This is ignoring all the other taxes like fuel duty, car tax, inheritance tax and so on.

The first 3600GBP is tax-free so that leaves 11,400GBP to be taxed by the UK government.

Meaning the tax burden for a person earning 15,000GBP a year is 5,700GBP.

Out of this 5,700GBP 17% goes to the NHS equaling a figure of 969GBP per year.

Private healthcare is nearly 20% cheaper than NHS healthcare.

And these figures do not even take into consideration the quality of health care between the 2 options.

These figures expose the absurdity of NHS cuts, NHS reorganisation and any other problems the government says it has re healthcare.

The fact of the matter is the NHS could be phased out, the tax burden to the UK taxpayer and UK business reduced by 17% and everyone would be better off. Better service for less money.

And don’t forget, a 17% cut in taxes would also make private healthcare cheaper than it already is due to reduced wage and operating costs.

I am not going to pretend that running the NHS is simple. It is massively complicated which is why individual businesses should be left to proved care.

Better to have hundreds of competing healthcare providers than one. 2 heads are better than one. Hundreds of heads are……

If the UK government is committed to real reform in healthcare then the NHS should be gradually phased out by region, with the taxes for that specific region being reduced by 17% in parallel with the NHS stopping its activities.

And detractors of this idea, do not try to compare privatised health care with the health care system in the USA.

The healthcare system in the USA is not a free market system. The US healthcare system is the worst of all worlds. It has a heavy dose of government involvement while the actual health care is provided by private companies.

The whole system needs completely free.

But that is not the end of the savings.

With a completely market orientated healthcare system there would be massively reduced costs to society as a whole.

No longer would binge drinking and smoking not have a cost to the person abusing their body.

With a privatised system people would finally have a real cash incentive to look after their bodies.

Finally, people who looked after themselves would be financially rewarded for their efforts through lower health care costs.

If there is one factor that is detrimental to the health of a nation is taking away people’s responsibility to look after themselves.

Can you imagine if car insurance was free? Do you think there would be more accidents or less? Do you think people would be more careful or less?

Do you think attaching a financial cost to self-inflicted injuries caused through drink would make people think twice about their actions?

When people can attach a price to smoking, are they more, or less likely to quit?

Do you think people will be more or less healthy if every year they had to have a full medical before renewing their insurance plan?

And this is just the savings to personal health.

There are also massive environmental benefits to privatised healthcare.

No longer would pollution be a non cost factor in people’s lives.

If there is air pollution in your area, it doesn’t cost you anything with a government healthcare system.

Can you imagine the lawsuits that would be filed if there was a leak of toxic materials into the atmosphere and private companies are having to pick up the tab for treatment?

It would not just be the private individuals suing for compensation, the healthcare providers would also be suing the polluting company to cover their costs.

At the moment there is no social cost to pollution of the environment. As soon as you put a dollar price on pollution the whole issue becomes infinitely more serious.

Food companies who cause outbreaks of food poisoning, business which put harmful chemicals into the food chain from sea pollution, to the use of hazardous materials in the rearing of animals and crops.

All these companies get a slap on the wrist at the moment and the taxpayer ends up picking up the huge medical costs.

With a private healthcare system all this would stop. All of a sudden you have everybody taking the quality of their environment much more seriously.

No longer will it be acceptable to smell something funny in the air now again and think nothing of it. People are going to be asking what exactly is causing it and does it pose a health risk in the short and long-term.

A government healthcare system is taking away your responsibility for your own body. A “free” healthcare system is akin to treating your body like a hire care, someone else’s property.

With a leased car you no longer have to pay for maintenance, insurance and repairs. You are totally detached from the cost of ownership so you longer as much as you would if it was yours. When the government does the same to your body they effect is the same whether you realise it or not.

I think everyone would agree that keeping your body in tip-top condition is much more expensive, complicated and time-consuming than keeping a car in tip-top condition.

Yet which do you find yourself think about most at the moment, as a UK citizen. Keeping your car in tip-top condition or your body?

And then we get onto the profit motive.

The mainstream media loves to put people on the TV saying how putting a price on healthcare is immoral.

Ignoring the immorality of giving businesses a pass for pollution and the immorality of the costs of reckless behaviour being passed onto responsible people.

Saying profit should not be part of healthcare is like saying healthcare should be free.

In a perfect world maybe it should be but the fact of the matter is that healthcare costs money.

To run a healthcare system takes skilled staff and it takes resources. This is the same whether it is government-run or privately run.

But private healthcare companies will have a margin the government does not. Private healthcare will be more expensive!

Which takes me back to the start of the article.

The fact of the matter is privately run health care offers a better service and is cheaper than government-run healthcare.

The fact of the matter is the profit motive makes things cheaper not more expensive.

In my mind the phasing out of the NHS while in parallel reducing the tax bill on businesses and citizens by 17% is by far the best solution.

In fact it is an absolute no-brainer.

Less cost, better service. The facts speak for themselves.

Those are my thoughts, I would love to hear yours.

 

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