Tuesday, October 04, 2005

NHS costs reimbursed?

A grandmother is taking the Department of Health to Europe's Court of Justice today to recoup the £4,000 cost of the treatment as the NHS wait in the UK was unacceptable.

Initially, this seems a good idea. If the NHS is unable to provide your treatment as required, you should be able to recoup the cost. It is "fair" as you have paid your taxes over the years and the NHS was unable to help when you really needed it. Any other organisation would be 'punished' for failing to deliver a good service by losing revenue, why should the NHS be exempt? Could it even improve NHS service delivery?

However, just where do you draw the line? How long is an acceptable wait? What treatments should be excluded? If people have private medical treatment in the UK, should they also be reimbursed? Should private medical insurance in the UK be tax deductible?

2 comments:

wonkotsane said...

How about making the NHS optional? Those who can prove they have medical insurance can stop paying most of their NHS subs (not all because they will still need an ambulance in the event of an emergency and private helath insurance won't pay for everything).

Anonymous said...

As a fan of private health care I can go with the above.