The Price of Life.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Oh yes very limited when owners of drug companies put prices up 1000% and come out with crap like the NHS ‘doesn’t care what it costs’. If they got to grips with their drug buying arm and actually claimed the discounts avaliable that'd save a lot of cash

That's true. I wasn't actually defending the NHS. It has a lot of faults. I remember something that happened years ago. My aunt (then) was living in Barbados. She had been for nearly 10 years. As such, she had paid no income tax or NI for all that time.

One day, she was at our house. She had a really bad asmtha attack and the inhaler was not relieving it. We took her to our local A&E. They put her on a nebuliser (which did relieve the asthma) and made an appointment for her to see the relevant department in the hospital a few days later. When she went for the appointment, they gave her a nebuliser. Not a cheap piece of equipment.

She was a sister in the NHS, so knew the correct procedure. I don't know about now, but the NHS did have a procedure for charging insurance companies for non-uk residents. She asked for the relevant paperwork so her insurance would pay for the nebuliser. They refused to go and get the relevant paperwork.

---------- Post added at 21:42 ---------- Previous post was at 21:32 ----------

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

The cost of a life is paramount

A fine idea in theory. Not in practice though.

I think part of the problem for the NHS is that we live too long. This is a problem for two reasons:

1. People who live longer cost the NHS more, as they tend to get ill more as they get older.
2. People have this quaint idea that by paying NI, the money they pay in will be used for them in their old age. This is not (and never has been) true. The NI contributions from people of working age support the NHS. The number of working people is shrinking as the population gets older, while the number of people requiring support is getting higher.
   
   

Another part of the problem is that (thanks partly to the success of the NHS) people are more likely to survive illness, and the number of treatable illnesses is increasing. As is the cost of treating them.

[Tuftus]

What is the drug in question?

[Hugh]

Originally Posted by Tuftus

What is the drug in question?

I think Arthur was hypothesising a worst possible case as a generic proposition, rather than stating a specific....

why is it if l become ill, would not be able to get the drugs l need to survive, as the NHS cannot afford the drug

(but I could be wrong).