Re:Jakub Konka Hired Full Time
by throwaways885 on Tuesday April 06, 2021 @09:26AM
(#26711474)
> And once you're paying taxes, there's no point to buy health insurance separately, as you will automatically qualify for "free" healthcare.
The downside of socialised health care is the extensive waiting lists for everything.
I live under the NHS, and while it's a brilliant system, I do understand those with the means wanting to avoid it.
Re:Jakub Konka Hired Full Time
by modo_mario on Tuesday April 06, 2021 @09:44AM
(#26711644)
I haven't really experienced that here in Belgium tho I have heard of some long waiting now for certain specialists like orthodontists, gastroenterologist or others that were forced to partially drop work during the peaks of the pandemic.
Indeed, but that's only really because we've underfunded it. It wasn't so long ago (last labour government) that waiting times were reasonable, and it wouldn't take all that much money to fix.
Re:Jakub Konka Hired Full Time
by throwaways885 on Tuesday April 06, 2021 @10:06AM
(#26711900)
Funding for the NHS has massively increased YoY. Ageing population is the issue and it's not as easily solved with money as you might suspect.
It still has one of the lowest per-capita budgets of healthcare systems in developed nations. If one wants to explain why wait times are high compared to other healthcare systems, that would seem a more obvious explanation than the single-payer funding model. I would agree that an ageing population is also a factor.
You can buy health insurance separately, but that doesn't excuse you from paying taxes if you're receiving income. And once you're paying taxes, there's no point to buy health insurance separately, as you will automatically qualify for "free" healthcare. The only time it makes sense to buy health insurance separately is if you have retired at a young age or you're cheating on your taxes.
Of course, all of this varies by country, but I imagine the percentages are relatively similar. Germany is a more expensive country, so I can see how 70EUR/h might be a reasonable number there.