Hooper has resigned

[Harry Lamb]

11 minutes ago, slinkydevil said:

Pity about Hooper, nice chap and thought he was doing a good job.

Said noone ever

[Mr Helmut Fromage]

4 minutes ago, Utah 01 said:

I'm sure there's a way for you to pay as much as you want into the Treasury.  Just keep speaking for yourself and don't include the rest of us.

It’s called Braddan rates

[Max Power]

I can't see any other option for healthcare other than to become a hybrid system like most other countries. Britain, and by extension the Isle of Man, is completely transfixed on a system that is 'free at the point of delivery,' madness! What use is it if it can't respond to your needs as and when required, it's not really working for everyone. The likes of Germany, France and Spain have much better healthcare, it's timely and designed to react. 

We are kidding ourselves because we have a lot of dedicated medical professionals who are excellent, but hamstrung and underfunded. There will never ever be enough money available to provide for the medical needs of everyone in the current system, it's impossible to set a budget and hope that it will be enough, because we have no idea what will happen next. If we want decent healthcare, we are going to have to pay for it. What we have paid in NI over the years doesn't cover a fraction of what most people need in their later years, some kind of insurance scheme is the only way out of the mess we are in. 

Healthcare is a human right, just not free healthcare:

Quote

 Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children shall enjoy the same social protection.

 

[Anyone]

In should be renamed the national non health service. Never in the field of human endeavour has one organisation done so little at great cost for so few. 

[NoTail]

The subject is going slightly off piste but my view is the NHS should deliver basic good healthcare free to all, the limits should be tightly defined. By this I mean basic as in fixing broken bones, delivering babies, sorting high blood pressure issues etc , not surgery for being obese. 

If you need/want a heart transplant, liver transplant, breast enlargement/reduction, transgender operation or similar expensive, possibly optional treatment then you are going to have to pay for it or at least contribute.

Somewhere down the line we have become a society which 'expects' or believes in an 'entitlement'. We are all going to die, some of us, including me, do not take enough personal responsibility for how we look after ourselves. If you are a mountaineer and fall should you contribute financially to getting better?

[De nada]

36 minutes ago, Harry Lamb said:

Said noone ever

Peter?

[Vaaish]

2 minutes ago, De nada said:

Peter?

Or Herman?

[littlebushy]

15 minutes ago, NoTail said:

The subject is going slightly off piste but my view is the NHS should deliver basic good healthcare free to all, the limits should be tightly defined. By this I mean basic as in fixing broken bones, delivering babies, sorting high blood pressure issues etc , not surgery for being obese. 

If you need/want a heart transplant, liver transplant, breast enlargement/reduction, transgender operation or similar expensive, possibly optional treatment then you are going to have to pay for it or at least contribute.

Somewhere down the line we have become a society which 'expects' or believes in an 'entitlement'. We are all going to die, some of us, including me, do not take enough personal responsibility for how we look after ourselves. If you are a mountaineer and fall should you contribute financially to getting better?

Not sure a heart or liver transplant is an optional extra. I've also never heard of someone wanting one but may end up needing one.

How do you define its okay to treat high blood pressure...but what if its caused by a 60 a day habit? Breaking a bone...by crashing in the TT...or falling over whilst pissed...

[Ringy Rose]

3 minutes ago, NoTail said:

my view is the NHS should deliver basic good healthcare free to all, the limits should be tightly defined. By this I mean basic as in fixing broken bones, delivering babies, sorting high blood pressure issues etc , not surgery for being obese. 

Surgery isn’t the expensive part of the NHS. Bariatric surgery is cheaper than the alternative.

You mention high blood pressure as being “basic”. The most expensive drug for cost to the NHS is Apixaban, which is used to reduce blood clotting and prevent strokes; it costs the UK NHS £430m a year. The single most prescribed drug is a statin.

I’d agree to an extent about expectations, but again it’s not the stuff you talk about that costs the money. Cancer treatment is hugely expensive. The single most expensive drug used in the UK NHS costs £3m a dose and is used to treat a fatal genetic condition in toddlers. That’s why the NHS is getting more expensive: medical science saves children that would have died a few years ago, but there’s a price tag attached.

37 minutes ago, Max Power said:

What we have paid in NI over the years doesn't cover a fraction of what most people need in their later years, some kind of insurance scheme is the only way out of the mess we are in. 

Someone has to pay for healthcare, the question is: who.

Insurance schemes have exactly the same issue: who pays. Someone does, and it sure as hell isn’t the insurer. 

Hybrid schemes and insurance schemes work mostly by suppressing demand. In America or Australia if you can’t pay the insurance premiums and you can’t pay the co-pay/excess then, in the best case, you’re made bankrupt and in the worst case you die. Germany and  France are slightly different but the German system is mostly (80/20) taxpayer-funded. Of course the mandatory 20% paid privately also comes from the very same taxpayers’ pockets…

The trouble here is that we have a system that is underfunded. Quite why people think we should go down the route of mandatory health insurance contributions rather than, say, charge corporation tax, is quite beyond me.

It’s the same with social care. My mother took out an annuity with an insurer to pay for her care home fees. It cost her £150,000. She died before she racked up enough care home fees to break even on the deal. Great for the insurer’s shareholders I guess.

It means she paid for the ones who lived longer than their annuity cost. You win some, you lose some. We could manage this risk on a national scale and benefit from economies of scale at the same time. Insurance on a national basis, if only there was a word to describe it.

[Non-Believer]

5 hours ago, FANDL said:

The only effective action she has taken since she got in. 

Stu is watching....

[Manx Bean]

3 hours ago, puppet1 said:

The lady MHK from Peel will be loyal to the Chief Minister. 

Allegedly they have a special relationship..so there is no chance if her being shit-dropped into a basket case of a Department..

[FANDL]

20 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

Stu is watching....

It’s sad that we have lost both Mary Whitehouse and Rupert Rigsby in health today but Boss Hogg has little to fear. He won’t be getting a knock on the door. 

[Albert Tatlock]

Worra mess. Can see the Government falling in a week or two.

Jane Poole-Wilson getting it.

 

[Kopek]

Who will be the Geoffrey Howe to whisper in Maggie Cannans ear???

[Mr Helmut Fromage]

23 minutes ago, Albert Tatlock said:

Worra mess. Can see the Government falling in a week or two.

Jane Poole-Wilson getting it.

 

With a face like a reflection from the back of a spoon….

All hail the new leader