Nobby, people who know about the NHSFollow

At the moment it's only a "right" for over 75s.

I can't imagine a GP turning down anyone who asks for a check-up, but there isn't currently a specification for what needs checking unless you're old and smelly.

Although you're young and sprightly, if you ask your GP to give you a once-over (BP, BMI, prostate, respiratory function, cholesterol etc.), she or he will almost certainly oblige. Ask for one every week, he'll tell you to Foxtrot Oscar, but 6-monthly - not a bad idea.

Nobody has to pay for healthcare in the UK unless they're from outside the European Union, and even then, emergency treatment (trauma, fracture, sudden onset illness) is free to any visitor to our shores. Non-EU folk would have to pay for any subsequent medication, non-emergency surgery or inpatient care.

So it's sort of a sound bite, except that promoting regular check-ups for over-40s and making it an explicit 'right' could really help our preventive care.

Nice move, IMHO.

Mehh.

When Blair took office we already had a policy that patients should not have to face long waits, but waiting times averaged at 25x what they are now. They achieved that by specifying what patients have a 'right' to, and coming down hard when doctors failed.

This could save billions in preventable conditions by promoting preventive screening instead of forking out a packet on treating conditions that became acute through late detection.

Oh, and save thousands of lives too.

A Good move.

So, the question then from a Yank who cares f'uck all for for people who can't afford their own health care or provide their own insurance is...

what is the logic behind deciding that health care, in any form, is a right?

I get that worshiping how I want to is a right.
I get that saying what I want is a right.
I get that meeting up with like minded yahoos and pissing about the g is a right.

None of those, though, requires that the rest of the public chip in and pay for me to take advantage of them. None of them requires the sacrifice of another individual's right to anything.

With health care being a right, someone else has to pay for it. In this country, it would be similar to welfare, requiring me to pay for someone who is otherwise unable, or unwilling, to cover their own sh;t.

I admit, I am one of those who doesn't think every life is worth the same as the next. We may all start out that way, but as life advances it becomes decidedly untrue. I'm okay with the fact that life isn't fair and people get sick and die. I know that makes me a monster, but I'm okay with that.

And, if you don't feel like an answer, f'uck you, too, for consistency.

Ummm...Moe, while I respect your right to not want to pay for other peoples health care, why do you choose to live in the USA wich has the highest per capita expenditure on health care in the world? in fact nearly 3 times that of the UK?? It seems a bit daft thats all.

I was just wondering.....

Edited, Sep 24th 2008 5:08am by paulsol

The benefits outweigh the negatives, in my opinion. Also, it doesn't cost me, or most of the people I know, much at all. We have jobs that aren't at Walmart and have health insurance. The high expenditure comes largely from the billions wasted on paying for people who can't be responsible enough to take care of their own. The indirect cost to us comes from the exorbitant taxes we pay to cover that sh;t.

If it stops being a "right", my taxes no longer have to cover it. The difference is that we're not socialists over here (well, not officially, but soon enough the hand out crowd will be too large to vote out), and we shouldn't have to pay for it at all. Quite a few people in this country feel the way I do. We have not embraced the "right" to care thing. In countries where medicine is socialized, it has largely been bought in to by people and they don't mind the limitations.

Don't put words in my mouth, you insipid little sh;t. This thread is about health care. We take it one thing at a time.

When did we start talking about education? On the health thing though, you got it.

I am not a Republican.