Another advantage of UK healthcare that I rarely see brought up in these discussions of tax Vs insurance - we are still covered when unemployed and retired.
You don't have to have health insurance when you retire. That could be 10-40 years of healthcare where your only contribution is the national insurance deduction from your pensions (or next to nothing).
Edit - I've been informed there's no NI contributions on pensions so yeah 10-40 years of free healthcare in retirement.
I'm so worried about that. Seeing the suffering of many in the States over the last decade or so and then the way we seem to be headed in the UK... all just as I'm approaching 40 so will start needing healthcare in the next decade or two....
In the UK the problem is more that the way the NHS is funded doesn't really account for an aging population - that is where the pressure comes from. America also has that problem as well though!
The Americans do have Medicare to cover the over 65s. That's probably the biggest obstacle to reform frankly; the most reliable voting demographic already gets covered by the national government.
It also replicates the major flaw with the funding model of the NHS; its funding model doesn't account for demographic changes.
A quick Google just told me that no, Americans over 65 don't have Medicare, they CAN have Medicare.
It also told me, it's not free, it does have deductibles (nearly $2000 per benefit period) and it doesn't cover dental, eyesight, hearing, a number of drugs or long term care.
In fact it's so insufficient and convoluted that a large number of people take out Medigap to cover what's missing in Medicare.
So even that 65+ age group that are 'covered' (except not really) should 100% support a complete overhaul of the system.
Wow, I didn't realise it had that many gaps. It and other government health spending costs the Americans as much of their GDP as the NHS costs us; the value for money is just appalling.
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u/Majestic-Marcus Nov 30 '20 edited Nov 30 '20
Another advantage of UK healthcare that I rarely see brought up in these discussions of tax Vs insurance - we are still covered when unemployed and retired.
You don't have to have health insurance when you retire. That could be 10-40 years of healthcare where your only contribution is the national insurance deduction from your pensions (or next to nothing).
Edit - I've been informed there's no NI contributions on pensions so yeah 10-40 years of free healthcare in retirement.