Pay More Tax To Fund Nhs?

[Zacs-Master]

Would you, like 49% of the population (according to the poles), be prepared to pay more income tax for an improved NHS? If you're retired let's pretend you are still working.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/15/voters-tax-fund-nhs-poll

[kvalidir]

I'd be very happy to pay more tax, the NHS is a unique and wonderful thing that we stupidly take for granted. Nothing is as important as your health, and payg or paid for services are not the way forward imho as lots of horror scenarios wait there like Ummm's parent not seeking treatment because they then wouldn't be able to afford something for their child, people who have a naff GP that misdiagnoses or needs badgering for a referral, people who are suffering from depression and might need sudden help they haven't budgeted for etc etc etc. The whole idea is pitted with traps that will affect the most vulnerable, so yes let's pay more Tax and grow up, we have something great we all benefit from, let's preserve it.

[Zacs-Master]

How much cash do you pay at the moment Kvad?

[Zacs-Master]

Tax sorry, not cash. Jeez.

[jennyjoan]

didn't read all of the link - yes I would be willing to pay more into NHS, however had I have known all what the future lay re NHS - I would have paid into a private medical scheme too.

[Sqad]

Kvali

\\\ we have something great we all benefit from, let's preserve it.\\\

yes, something great that we can ill afford and although costing more than £110 billion per annum to run, falls short in many areas...i.e cancer survival rates.

The NHS has been hemorrhaging money for the best part of 30 years and has been ignored or "money from taxes" poured in, to try to stem the flood......all to no avail.
Now the situation is, that in it's present form it is affordable and many trusts on the verge of........BANKRUPTCY.

One can:

Raise direct taxation....which makes little or no effect on a £100billion yearly project.....not popular with the voters on Polling Day.

Inject private financial support....not popular in the UK because that sound like privatization........a dirty word in the UK and the electorate imagines paying for something de mano........again not popular.

Make cuts to the budget.......Labour would have a field day.

Or total reorganization.....the doctors wouldn't buy that, medical staff wouldn't and the Unions would be apoplectic.

All alternatives may invoke political suicide........the problem with State Controlled medicine.

Yes Kvali........I know my answer.....but i suppose raising of taxes is the favourite.......particularly for the poor who those who don't pay tax.

Funding of the NHS is a big problem.

[kvalidir]

I do pay tax, but I'm self employed and at a guess with everything taken into account I do this year will pay tax on somewhere between £25,000 and £35,000 depending on how things trend so the raise in tax idea certainly affects me.

[woofgang]

Well given that I have private medical insurance and i pay tax on that, as well as paying tax on my pension, no I wouldn't be prepared to pay more to fund the NHS as it currently stands. Having worked in the NHS I know there is still much waste and red tape that could be cut out. THEN once that is done, we'll see.

[zebo]

I would be prepared to pay more tax if the NHS placed all non-necessary treatments on a payment basis, this would include cosmetic surgery, gastric bands, ear-pinning etc etc which are non-essential. If I feel bad about my car, it is damaging my self-esteem, I don't expect to have it replaced, my nose has been the bane of my life but I've learned to live with it. Others should do the same and stop expecting tax-payers to pander to their whims.

[woofgang]

well I kind of agree. The argument with gastric bands is how much they save the NHS in terms of dealing with the problems of obesity. Also obesity is not just as simple as "people who eat too much and don't move enough." Ear pinning in children I think can be justified in terms of how a child can be made to feel if they are different. Myself I would stop all fertility treatment but I know I won't get agreement there. I am not saying that cosmetic surgery is never done but it is nowhere near as common as the papers would have you believe.
I guess what I am asking is who decides what is inessential?

[jno]

[i]why not a charge of say £20 to see your doctor[i]

reducing by £1 for every day you have to wait between booking and seeing the doctor. That'd come down to about £5 for me.

[Old_Geezer]

Charging to see a doctor destroys the NHS and every good thing it has stood for. It is this sort of privatisation one should not even consider. We are a community who think folks who get hit by illness/injury/etc. are unfortunate, and we all chip into a common insurance paid for by taxation so we all get health problems sorted. it is bad enough one is charged for the treatment (prescription) after the diagnosis as it is. It is the civilised choice for society and should not be part of a question asking whether one is prepared to pay more tax to improve the existing service. The important thing is that it is funded properly and the budget spent wisely. Not that governments seem to have a good record in spending our tax money wisely. the problem with this sort of thread is that it can be used to continually show agreement to more and more tax, which would be a wrong conclusion. Folk want value for money and maybe the question ought to be what budget would you be prepared to reduce in order to improve health.

[ToraToraTora]

no need, halve the WSS budget and make it efficient. simples!

[woofgang]

WSS?

[tamborine]

Pets get good, quick treatment coz we pay for it. Nowt wrong with using a similar system for our health.

[ladybirder]

No, definitely not a it stands at the moment. It needs a complete top to bottom overhaul and to stop funding unnecessary treatments like fertility for one, we don't need any more people in the world. Yes I agree with you woofgang and as you say it won't be popular

[Kromovaracun]

WSS is a phrase that 3T is desperately trying to get into common usage. It means "work shy scum", I.e. anyone who is unemployed.

[woofgang]

oh okay so that's a fail then......