[Army_of_One]

My take...

I'm sure Binky's social healthcare system works great. Who doesn't want "free healthcare". A lot of people on here complain about taxes...I'm one of them. Look at some of the tax rates in Britain.

Britain has what is called a VAT or Value Added Tax which is a 17.5% tax on consumer goods and services. (some goods and services are excluded from this tax) This is basically a tax on consumer spending.

There is also the an array of other taxes.

I feel that if something is totally free then everyone will take advantage of the system for even the smallest illness. We don't have enough doctors and facilities as it is...however would we manage this? Americans already complained about having to wait 2 or 3 hours in the waiting room. What would be the fix for this? Hire more doctors? Binky, do you have a DR shortage in Britain?


What is this about Binky?

Seriously ill patients are being kept in ambulances outside hospitals for hours so NHS trusts do not miss Government targets.
Thousands of people a year are having to wait outside accident and emergency departments because trusts will not let them in until they can treat them within four hours, in line with a Labour pledge.
The hold-ups mean ambulances are not available to answer fresh 999 calls. […] Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show that last year 43,576 patients waited longer than one hour before being let into emergency units. […] Labour brought in the four-hour A&E target to end the scandal of patients waiting for days in casualty or being kept on trolleys in corridors.
The practice of leaving patients out in the ambulance is known as "patient-stacking." Hey, you get what you pay for, and socialized healthcare is free — unless you pay taxes.

January 1, 2008
Obey if You Want Medical Care
Offering a disturbing example of the kind of power socialized medicine grants to bureaucrats, Gordon Brown has announced that Britons may be required to stop smoking, conform to exercise regimens or attain a specified weight before receiving the "free" healthcare that is largely responsible for their crippling tax burden. These dictates are referred to as "responsibilities."


OUr system pretty much sucks but we DO have some of the best healthcare in the world....people that can afford it come HERE to have major surgeries done. They don't go to Cuba or Canada...

FURTHERmore Binky I do feel that we as able bodied tax paying citizens DO have a responsibility to help the elderly, disabled, mentally ill and such. BUT how much responsibility do we have to pay for the healthcare of a perfectly fit human being that chooses to not contribute to society?