NHS funding etc Pay more tax ?

[Franks Wild Years]

Following on from another thread. How many people would be willing to pay an extra amount in Tax if they could be certain that it would go on core services ?
I would and education as well.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

At the moment with my income and debts to pay back (student loan etc) I don't think I could afford to really. I would love to, in theory, but......

 

[coventrygull]

I would rather see the money wasted on the illegal occupation of Iraq spent on the NHS

 

[METALMICKY]

The reality is that people bleat on about NHS services but i can testify from my job that when it comes to the crunch they do notn give a shit.

PLEASE BEAR WITH ME ON THIS EXPLANATION:

I work for the Gov body that is responsible for NHS dentistry in England & Wales. Since 2000 the govt bought in checks on people who attend the dentist and sign a form to say that they are exempt from the charges because they are in receipt of a qualifying benefit. The common denominator about the qualifying benefits are that they are all means tested benefits.

The form that you sign clearly lists what the qualifying benefits are and the process simply requires you read what you are signing and only sign it if it is true. The form also clearly mentions that checks are made on these declarations and warns about a Penalty Charge. If we check with the relevant benefit agencies (DWP & PPA) and you are not in receipt of a qualifying benefit at the time you should have payed then you may get a penalty charge and also pay the NHS treatment fees. The Penalty charge is worked out on the equation 5 X the NHS charge you should have paid up to a maximum of £100. For example if you should have paid £10 then you will get a total bill for £60. Logically if your treatment should have cost £20 or more then you will get max £100 fine. Obviously the Penalty Charge is there for 2 reasons 1) We are only capable of checking a fraction of the total claims processed and 2) The actual process of checking and reclaiming ha s to be financed.

The underlying principle of the process simply asks that if you are on any form of benefit you need to know A) precisely what benefit you are on and? B) What does that benefit entitle you to? To my way of thinking that is not unreasonable to ask bearing in mind that if you don't pay the dentist then the bill is picked up by the tax payer. In effect the rest of us who pay tax, pay for your treatment and money that could be invested in NHS services is lost.

The reality is that i spend a huge amount of time on the phone being verbally abused and even the odd threat of violence and it all bears down to cold hard cash.

Amongst the excuses:

1) I thought my Incapacity Benefit covered me
2) I get Housing Benefit
3) I didn't notice my xxx certificate ran out 6 months ago
4) I just signed the form without reading it
5) I thought i got free treatment as i was unemployed - If you are in receipt of Income Based JSA "yes" but not if you are a work shy git!
6) I could not afford to pay!!!!!!!!!!!
7) I've never paid before!!!!!

So there you have it, i could go on. So whilst everyone likes to moan about Asylum Seekers etc why not let's all look at ourselves and take some responsibility.

The beauty is that i take great pleasure in taking some of these people to the civil court and hearing the judge tell them to pay up.

 

[Titanic]

Shouldn't basic dental care be FREE on the NHS ? Isn't that what we pay our National Insurance (increased by Mr Blair/Brown) and Income Tax for ??

 

[Bry Nylon]

I work effing hard and I earn good money. I pay tax at 40%.
I pay 17.5% VAT on pretty much everything I buy. I pay nearly £1 / litre for my 70 mile drive to work and back. I pay 11% National Insurance, but also buy private medical care with BUPA as the NHS is shite. I also pay for a final salary pension (with help from my gorgeous, fragrant employer) as I'm 36 and when I retire state pensions will be worth jack. I also pay £150 / month council tax so the refuse collecters can chuck rubbish all over my drive every Monday AND expect a tip at xmas.

Want MORE £££ off me for the NHS / anything else ?? f*** OFF

:angry

Sorry -- am calming down now.

 

[METALMICKY]

Shouldn't basic dental care be FREE on the NHS ? Isn't that what we pay our National Insurance (increased by Mr Blair/Brown) and Income Tax for ??

Currently NHS treatment is funded 20% your taxes and you pay the the other 80%. The cost of treatments is fixed and is the same wherever you go. At present private dentistry will usually cost you more.

However, and going off at a tangent, many NHS dentists are refusing to accept the new locally funded NHS contracts being introduced in April and will soon only offer private treatment. I can tell you the reality is that most NHS dentists do very well nicely and very few earn less than £50k a year.

 

[Titanic]

I don't care what they earn - I want free dentistry for all, at the point of need.

Why is dentistry any different from any other form of healthcare ?

 

[Bry Nylon]

Oh yeah - I forgot to say -- I pay shit loads in NI and can't get an NHS dentist -- so I pay for that too

arrrhhh -- You've got me angry now!

Rally in Trafalgar Square THIS weekend!!!!

>WHAT DO WE WANT?
>FREE POLISH & PINK MOUTH RINSE!!
>WHEN DO WE WANT IT?
>WHEN THE ECONOMY IS IN A VIABLE SELF-FUNDING SCENARIO!

 

[London Irish]

I would rather see the money wasted on the illegal occupation of Iraq spent on the NHS

Indeed so, but let's reverse the Tory tax cuts too and make both our health and education system the best in the world

 

[Bry Nylon]

Indeed so, but let's reverse the Tory tax cuts too and make both our health and education system the best in the world

...wish I'd had a tenner on at William Hill

* not Paddy Power:- bog-farming crooks, so I heard ...

 

[London Irish]

Ibut also buy private medical care with BUPA as the NHS is shite.

I would also ban private health companies and private schools, which are creating a two-tier system in this country which allows the elite and the selfish to look after themselves and do f*** all about solving the problems of the NHS and the education system

 

[chip]

I work effing hard and I earn good money. I pay tax at 40%.
I pay 17.5% VAT on pretty much everything I buy. I pay nearly £1 / litre for my 70 mile drive to work and back. I pay 11% National Insurance, but also buy private medical care with BUPA as the NHS is shite. I also pay for a final salary pension (with help from my gorgeous, fragrant employer) as I'm 36 and when I retire state pensions will be worth jack. I also pay £150 / month council tax so the refuse collecters can chuck rubbish all over my drive every Monday AND expect a tip at xmas.

Want MORE £££ off me for the NHS / anything else ?? f*** OFF

:angry

Sorry -- am calming down now.

Agreed, it would just be wasted.

So much is creamed off already in health and education and there is too much central interference. If health was organised on clinical objectives (and education on learning) rather than political ones we would not need to spend more.

 

[Bry Nylon]

I would also ban private health companies and private schools, which are creating a two-tier system in this country which allows the elite and the selfish to look after themselves and do f*** all about solving the problems of the NHS and the education system

make that £20

 

[METALMICKY]

Oh yeah - I forgot to say -- I pay shit loads in NI and can't get an NHS dentist -- so I pay for that too

Don't forget you have always had to pay for NHS dental treatment, it has never been 100% subsidised.

Unfortunately, i could take all night explaining to you the history of NHS dentistry over the last 20 years and how their current reasonings for going private don't stand up! They asked for a radical over haul of their piece work based payment system sold on the basis of improved patient care when the reality was they were just gettimg more greedy. When the govt took notice and came up with a solution that required them to effectively justify their salaries to their local PCT's who were given responsibilty for funding, they have still cried foul.

 

[Cian]

Just expect that even if the NHS funding goes up, and up, and up... the services might not

Here, we're throwing more money year of year into the health service and the quality of service is going down and down due to most of it being poured into administration, etc.

 

[chip]

I would also ban private health companies and private schools, which are creating a two-tier system in this country which allows the elite and the selfish to look after themselves and do f*** all about solving the problems of the NHS and the education system

Or it is subsidising the poor. I don't get back the money from the LEA that school fees cost me.

People like you just want to bring everything down to the lowest common denominator. Aim higher, perhaps it would be better if we tried to get everyone into a caring, private education system that looked after our childrens needs. And hospitals where you didn't get MRSA and administrators deciding which operations to do.

 

[Bry Nylon]

I would also ban private health companies and private schools, which are creating a two-tier system in this country which allows the elite and the selfish to look after themselves and do f*** all about solving the problems of the NHS and the education system

Well f*** off to Albania then.
I pay over 60% of everything I earn in some form of tax or other, but will gladly go the extra mile to pay your one-way airfare

 

[chip]

Well f*** off to Albania then.
I pay over 60% of everything I earn in some form of tax or other, but will gladly go the extra mile to pay your one-way airfare

People like LI would also like to tell us what cars we can drive, where we should live, what should be in our shoping basket etc. unless we should become elite and get ideas above our station. There may be an exception depending on the hue of our skin or the rarity of our belief system.

I bet he caps his income to the average working persons wage, lives in a very modest averagely priced house in a working class area. Like hell, he is a do as I say merchant.

I'll pay the upgrade to club class for him

 

[Starry]

If it improved things then I would. Rather than chucking money into a black hole and no improvements or gains being made.

As it is, we now have private healthcare and my kids are in private school so I would begrudge paying more if it wasn't improved enough that we could save on those things.