Quote:
Originally Posted by redwhiteandblue
The problem with socialist ideas like the NHS is that as soon as you start giving everyone something for free (or what they perceive to be free, it's not really free as taxpayers pay for it) they start taking it for granted. When they start taking it for granted they start expecting it more and more. So the NHS budget requirement gets bigger year after year. Is the population getting sicker? Probably not but people expect the NHS to be able to fix every little ailment they have in lieu of looking after themselves properly.
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And you don't think this happens in an non NHS country like the US?
A friend of mine's wife is a nurse. She now works in a pediatric ICU, but for a few years she worked in a regular ER. There were people they saw all the time in there for every little ailment. People bring their kids in because they have a slight fever or a belly ache. People stub their toe and go in there. Many of these people have no insurance and will never pay the bill. Everytime they come in it costs the tax payers around $1200+. Would NHS fix this? Probably not. Some people overreact to everything and would still go to the ER for every little problem. The potential difference is that they are no longer running up a bill they aren't going to pay which is passed on to the next person.
Part of the reason we pay more per person for healthcare than anywhere else in the world is because we have a bunch of people who pay nothing, and those costs are passed on to those with insurnace and who do pay.