Re: Mr Cameron and The Sun : Mon Mar 25, 2013 6:30 pm  

Dally wrote:

The reciprocal arrangements with EEA countries mean you you get health care on the same terms as their citizens (which is not usually free). As you say, need to pay up front and hope to get back from your travel insurers. In some countries, eg Germany there is more than one type of hospital - so if you go / get taken to a private one rather than a state one the bills will be extremely expensive.

So, I guess to comply with EU law if Cameron is going to start charging EU citizens for NHS care he'll need to charge UK citizens the same.

Spain is the same as Germany with a two tier system, its fair enough that a UK citizen should get the basic level only and its why I ALWAYS take out travel insurance even within the EU, but even that doesn't mean you're not going to pay for treatment because most policies have an excess - so for instance ten years ago when my youngest got an ear infection from a hotel swimming pool a consultation with a local GP so that we could obtain antibiotics cost fifty euro, which by coincidence was the level of my excess too.

Fifty quid to see a GP in his local surgery, would make you stop and think if it applied in the UK wouldn't it ?

Re: Mr Cameron and The Sun : Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:47 pm  

JerryChicken wrote:

Fifty quid to see a GP in his local surgery, would make you stop and think if it applied in the UK wouldn't it ?

Usually healthy people going to GPs because they have a cold should pay. If you go in the winter it's full of youngish people sneezing and coughing. I have had to bite my tongue a few times!

Re: Mr Cameron and The Sun : Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:56 pm  

Dally wrote:

Usually healthy people going to GPs because they have a cold should pay. If you go in the winter it's full of youngish people sneezing and coughing. I have had to bite my tongue a few times!

Does that actually happen, seriously?
I wouldn't know having never been to mine for 25ish years.

How much, would you like to hazard a guess, has the Dally feminine side cost the NHS with their mental instability?

Re: Mr Cameron and The Sun : Tue Mar 26, 2013 1:01 pm  

WIZEB wrote:

Does that actually happen, seriously?
I wouldn't know having never been to mine for 25ish years.

How much, would you like to hazard a guess, has the Dally feminine side cost the NHS with their mental instability?

Yes.

Alot.

[DaveO]

Re: Mr Cameron and The Sun : Tue Mar 26, 2013 1:32 pm  

Kosh wrote:

Anyone listen to the Today program this morning? An academic study has just concluded that EU immigrants pay in more than they take out.

Tell Nigel Farage (aka a less likeable Homer Simpson).

He was on Newsnight last night and he was as unbelievable as ever. When asked had he met any immigrants who were sponging off the state in the way he accuses the answer was no "but that doesn't mean there aren't any" which would be fair comment if he wasn't the leader of a political party. When challenged that instead of relying on hearsay UKIP commissioned some research he was dismissive of the idea. Equally dismissive of such research that doesn't agree with his position. He'd rather rely on (as he said on Newsnight) conversations he had in the pub "minutes earlier" as definitive proof immigration is at the root of most of our economic ills.

I wish his opponents would get after him aggressively rather than letting him frame the terms of the debate. Cameron won't because half his party are as big a bunch of xenophobes as Farage is and the rest of the political establishment hasn't worked out how to counter the simplistic popularism the likes for Farage and (to give another example) Boris Johnson espouse.

Re: Mr Cameron and The Sun : Tue Mar 26, 2013 5:27 pm  

Dally wrote:

Usually healthy people going to GPs because they have a cold should pay. If you go in the winter it's full of youngish people sneezing and coughing. I have had to bite my tongue a few times!

Doesn't happen at my local GP practice.
For the fairly mundane stuff like colds, the appointments dragon on the front desk only gives appointments that are so far in the future that most things have got better by the time the appointment comes round.

Re: Mr Cameron and The Sun : Tue Mar 26, 2013 6:07 pm  

El Barbudo wrote:

Doesn't happen at my local GP practice.
For the fairly mundane stuff like colds, the appointments dragon on the front desk only gives appointments that are so far in the future that most things have got better by the time the appointment comes round.

It's a wonder she doesn'tell them to fook off and don't come back until you're really ill.
I'd be tempted too.

Re: Mr Cameron and The Sun : Tue Mar 26, 2013 6:31 pm  

DaveO wrote:

Tell Nigel Farage (aka a less likeable Homer Simpson).

He was on Newsnight last night and he was as unbelievable as ever. When asked had he met any immigrants who were sponging off the state in the way he accuses the answer was no "but that doesn't mean there aren't any" which would be fair comment if he wasn't the leader of a political party. When challenged that instead of relying on hearsay UKIP commissioned some research he was dismissive of the idea. Equally dismissive of such research that doesn't agree with his position. He'd rather rely on (as he said on Newsnight) conversations he had in the pub "minutes earlier" as definitive proof immigration is at the root of most of our economic ills.

I wish his opponents would get after him aggressively rather than letting him frame the terms of the debate. Cameron won't because half his party are as big a bunch of xenophobes as Farage is and the rest of the political establishment hasn't worked out how to counter the simplistic popularism the likes for Farage and (to give another example) Boris Johnson espouse.

I saw it, he was dressed like a WW2 spiv, pretty apt really considering his political outlook

Re: Mr Cameron and The Sun : Wed Mar 27, 2013 7:56 pm  

Dally really needs to move.

All these things that happen to him that don't seem to happen to anyone else in the country.

Truly astounding, it's amazing how these things manage to fit in with his personal bigotry.

Re: Mr Cameron and The Sun : Fri Mar 29, 2013 7:51 pm  

If everybody stopped ignoring their symptoms and didn't go to their GP would it really save that much money?

The GP is paid anyway, if loads of people go it just means you might have to wait a bit longer on the day and the GP will get through the appointments quicker.

If people stop going then symptoms get missed and cost more to treat down the line it doesn't effect a saving.

There is an alternative that they could be pushing though which is in the first case go to a pharmacist, you don't need an appointment, just turn up at the pharmacy and ask to see the pharmacist, describe your symptoms and they can give you professional advice, they will tell you if you need to see a GP or if you can just take something from their pharmacy (the usual with minor symptoms).