General Chat

My sister has a private insurance for medical things. So when I told her about SADS she got her kids tested privately. Her Son has had a defribulator (spelling|) fitted, her grandson a pacemaker, and her little grand daughter is awaiting a pace maker. I have no private medical insurance, my kids were given the basic tests, and now Morris has had a heart attack, the government MAY fund the in depth testing, money talks eh!!

Mine just says GOODBYE LOL

Yes Gillian your right.

Yea, easy come ( I do not think so) easy go XX..

It's scandalous that good health can sometimes only be bought if you are well off, do hope your family get their proper check ups in the near future Gillian.
Maybe you should write to the newspapers, some wealthy benefactor might come forward and pay for your family's tests, it does happen!


Lizxx

I agree, my uncle paid for his MRI and had it within a few days. My dad had to wait six months for a potentially life threatening spinal problem. That said, if you can afford it I see no reason why you shouldn't make the most of it. What I object to is that it is the same doctors and therefore nhs patients are pushed down the list for paying patients.

When we had our health insurance you had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get anything out of it.

I hear what you're saying Gillian and I'm sorry for your problems but we have private health insurance and we are certainly not well off. Having private insurance doesn't put you in an elitist position.

Sue x

Yes and what gets me is that the same doctors/surgeons who deal with us... the poor and needy... are the ones who deal with the private patients!
Is this any worse that Ministers fiddling their accounts?
Deanna X

I have just read message Sue.
I am very happy for you that you have private insurance, and I know that you are paying for it with your own money.
BUT, don't run away with the idea that if you can do it , anyone else who wants it could do it too.
This is just not true.
Some people can work amazingly hard , very long physically hard working days, and barely afford and insurance on their lives!
If You have a medical insurance then you must be able to pay it and I hope that you always can.

I get very upset by people who constantly tell us that they have no money and struggle to pay for *private medical insurance*, *Private schools* for their children and all at the same time as buying their own home on a Private Estate.
Please... enjoy it all and good luck to you, but don't please tell those who cannot do it that they too have a choice.... it is just not true.
Deanna X

Dear All

I am not going to sit on the fence on this issue.

I think if there is a waiting list for a procedure/test that you need
and you can get it done privately, that is okay. However, private treatment for everything can be an absolute rip-off.

If there is any small loop hole that can be used,
private medical insurance does not cover what you need.


It all depends on what Doctors you see and of course, the postcode lottery.

The only people to be termed as "cost effective" are, excuse me for this, the F****g senior managers, who mostly are lazy, irresponsble and useless.

If they were dismissed, then huge amounts of money could be chanelled into front line services and into much needed drugs.

I speak as someone who has worked in the NHS for many years.
I KNOW the NHS can help people.

Very best wishes to all
xx

The problem with private medical insurance in Britain is....
when the money runs out - you are then directed to the NHS, where you 'queue jump' other (non-private) NHS patients!
But I fully understand why those that can afford it have it.
Just seems a bit unfair......
I pay a lot of my meagre wage in National Insurance.............

In Australia, the Government encourages you to have private health cover, then the premiums keep increasing and not many people can afford it. I've been in private health cover for so long now, that if I had quit it, I would have paid all that money for nothing. In any case, I am now getting my money's worth (unfortunately). I do find it annoying though, that even with having private cover, it cost me about $1000 for my mastectomy. If I'd gone to the Base hospital, it would have been free. I at least got to choose my surgeon, who was wonderful and I had no problems post-op.

Alison

I suppose the people who have private insurance fund their treatment twice... through private insurance and through the NHS.

I think we are very privileged in the UK in having the NHS, I can imagine a lot of people in other countries who are not rich would be grateful of such a system which is available to all, even those who don't work and cannot afford treatment. In that sense the poor are subsidised by those that are better off (I'm not saying wealthy- just better off)

Money does talk, however what are you suggesting that we deny people spending their own money on insurance or private health care? (& for some people it is a choice....they are not wealthy but choose to go private and give up other things etc)

The NHS is not perfect, which gives us a few options:
- leave the system the way it is,
- put more money into the system to make it better
- or restrict the type of treatment or the people that it helps.

If we do want the system changed, then as a nation we need to do something about it.

I'm sorry to hear about Morris. Someone I know recently lost a child through SADS and it is so tragic.

I do not deny the people who have money the option to go private, it is just that when you know your Son can die any second it is upsetting to know its because of red tape and waiting lists. And, yes I fully understand that there are many many people who need treatment ugently, not just my Son. I guess I am questioning myelf on this one, looks likely that I am the one carrying the gene that has caused this problem in my children, and I obviously inherited it from my elders, and yes I understand it is no fault of my own, however that makes me feel no better. Morris has finally been put on the urgent list so should receive his defribullator within the month, and of course, as his Mother, and having already lost one Son to SADS, I want it done yesterday. It is very hard to get through each day, hoping he can be spared until the operation is performed, and my theory is that the females carry this gene and pass it to the boys, and my daughter has two young lads. For my family, I want the tests done immediately, but I appreciate I am not th only family awaiting such tests.
I was merely commenting that if you are fortunate enough to have money to provide private Health care, how lucky you are.

I have to say that I have had more treatment than most on the NHS and am most grateful. I wont bore you with the list of problems, but if I had not had treatment for Aspergillosis (farmers lung) in the early seventies, that was the first time I could have died. Cancer, heart disease and diabetes have all been treated for free. I do pay into a small health insurance which pays out a small sum for dental and optical work and some money for each night you spend in hospital. That was all I could afford.