I am open to any structure for health provision in the UK but before making rash statements like scrap the NHS and replace it with something fairer, I would want to be reasonably sure that any alternative structure would be both cheaper and provide an equal or better healthcare service. I haven’t seen any evidence for that. I wouldn’t support a healthcare system that denied any healthcare to poorer people over 80 years old - not the sort of country I want to live in. I do think though as a society we need to try to move towards a system where quality of life is an equal consideration to quantity of life - I don’t know exactly what that looks like. The assisted dying bill is a move in that direction but I think there is further to go.
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I agree and I certainly don’t want to live in a country that doesn’t provide medical care for people over 80 or poorer people. Just imagine getting to your 80 birthday and getting a letter from the NHS confirming that you now need to go private, what a world that would be 
.
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I think the issue of public sector pensions being so out of line with the private sector will significantly drive the wealth divide in coming years.
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Crikey. We’ve moved pretty quickly from redevelopment of Adams Park to a revolution in Social Policy! I’m all for it though - interesting thoughts.
I’m with @DevC on this. One thing this country is full to the brim of is ‘don’t tax me, tax them’ merchants.
Admittedly my view on that may be influenced by having to deal with a whining man this morning on £150k a year who got £20k of bonus shares three years ago that are now worth almost 10 times that.
Cue 30 mins of carping about ‘Rachel from accounts’ and the ‘workshy’. Won’t someone PLEASE think of his CGT bill.
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I’m pretty sure that the tax burden is high enough - this year’s is forecast to be equivalent to that of 1948/49!
As I previously said before the election, there is absolutely no way that Labour (or anyone else) can sort this country out!
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Party politics is dead.
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Politicians (of any stripe) with an actual workable plan that actually helps and unites people and the spine to see it through without immediately caving in to adverse media and publicity would be welcome.
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Wow! I breathed an audible sigh of relief when I read that first sentence but Iam both ill equipped and too long in the tooth to comment constructively on the rest of your post.
I don’t come here to talk about anything as horribly divisive as present day politics.
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Interesting thoughts and I certainly won’t resort to the sniping snide comments you jabbed my way.
I think ‘cheaper’ and ‘equal or better quality of service’ is not achievable in the slightest given the ageing and worsening health of the population.
You will no doubt continue to get upvoted for your idealistic scenario, but assisted dying is not going to be a silver bullet which allows simultaneity of improved cheapness and retained quality of service.
What about assisted dying by literal silver bullet?
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What an incredible thing that, in one of the greatest and richest countries on the planet, a main steam approach to solving the healthcare problem is killing the old people.
The assisted dying bill is certainly a step towards something, but not toward civilization.
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Don’t much like the thought of being steamed to death, @Floyd.
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The whole thing is repugnant.
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I’m a little confused. If you are now saying that an alternative health care system to the NHS will not prove either cheaper cost or better outcomes that keeping the NHS, why are you advocating scrapping the NHS. That makes no sense.
You will note that I said the assisted dying bill is a move in the direction of better balance between quantity and quality of life. I certainly didn’t suggest it is a sliver bullet for anything, let alone making a significant difference to the cost of the country’s health care system. That’s not the point.
But more repugnant than the idea of people who want to die rather than enduring horrendous pain and indignity enduring said pain and indignity because the state can’t find a way for their wishes to be granted?
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I disagree. The bill starts to find a better balance between quantity and quality of life, giving those whose only future is a long lingering painful end to their life with very little quality of life the right to chose to bring forward their death prioritising quality over quantity. That feels like a far more mature civilised way to treat suffering people than the current system.
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It’s not the state’s responsibility to grant our every wish is it? And it’s certainly not the states responsibility to give and take life.
Have you read the legislation?
Do you trust the current government, or any government or NHS Trust, to administer these requirements properly? Do you think it’s being well administered in Switzerland and Canada?
This started off as an interesting thread about the future of our stadium can we please get it back on track? Otherwise it’s not worth reading.
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