One-in-eight Britons now paying private for health treatment!

 

As more people in Britain are faced with delays in getting urgent NHS medical treatment or are finding it almost impossible to get a face-to-face appointment with a highly-paid GP - which is most acute in socially deprived areas - they're going private and paying to get access to adequate medical treatment.

Research carried out by YouGov, has found that one in eight Britons have paid for private health services in the last year and another 27% of people, had considered going private for themselves or for a loved one, but decided against it, because they often couldn't afford it.

NHS campaigners say that if paying for private medical treatment becomes normalised, then there is a danger that we will create a "two-tier" health service of those who can and cannot afford to pay. They blame government underfunding, staff shortages, and a lack of planning, for the NHS being unable to provide timely care.

In October 2022, the Economist magazine reported that one in ten NHS jobs were vacant, including 11,000 posts for doctors and 47,000 in nursing. Yet, for those wealthy middle-class Brits who have private health insurance, or the money to pay, ‘waiting list’ is a foreign phrase. For the vast majority of the British population, paying for private medical treatment is not an option. Over a third of people in the UK have less than £1,000 in cash to cover unexpected expenses, which increases health inequalities. The number of Britons using crowdfunding and GoFundMe appeals to pay for private medical expenses, has surged in the last five years. Many people opt to go abroad for surgical treatment where the cost of operations in parts of Europe such as Lithuania and Hungry, can be as little as half the price of the equivalent treatment in the U.K.

The research conducted by YouGov, found that the average spend for those who had paid for private medical treatment was £500. Some 23% had spent between £1,001 and £5,000 and another 4%, had spent between £5,001 and £10,000. It has been reported that many NHS Primary Care Trusts, have been alerting people to the option of going private and paying for medical treatment, in order to circumvent NHS waiting lists so they can jump the queue.

Although Labour and the Conservatives say they are committed to maintaining the NHS and cutting waiting times, they also favour more private sector involvement in delivering NHS funded health care. Operose Health, a UK subsidiary of the U.S. health insurance group the Centene Corporation, is now the biggest GP provider in the NHS. It now runs 70 surgeries with nearly 600,000 patients. An undercover investigation found that the company uses less qualified staff known as "Physician Associate' to see patients.

In the U.S. many Americans are unable to access medical care or pay for the high cost of medication because they cannot afford to pay for it. Failure to pay medical bills, is the biggest cause of middle-class bankruptcy in America. Although the U.K. is said to be the fourth biggest spender on healthcare in Europe, it routinely comes near the bottom in terms of outcome. The World Health Organisation (WHO), considers the French state run health service, the best in the world.