BG Central Heating breakdown care

[Dave Plowman]

A world record. I agree with Adam.

[Andrew]

So say the (not very) small army of pen pushers who are being 'employed' in this ever-increasingly overstaffed public service. It's all very well increasing the amount of money being spent on it, but unless we have something to export how is it going to be paid for ? - not by issuing Gilts, since that is a tax on future generations. (Council tax up another 800% anyone). How many of you have heard of Mr Grainger ??. He is the NHS IT 'guru' appointed by T Bliar on a salary of £250,000 and he is dishing out IT contracts that are going to cost us over £4 BILLION - for computers would you believe. In doing so he is scrapping all the existing IT systems that have been developed over the last 30-odd years, and buying in the usual American Dross. The details of these contracts have been almost covered by the official secrets act, such is their determination to prevent any form of public scrutiny. Can you imagine the government deciding to allow Heathrow T5 without any independent scrutiny ??.

What the NHS needs is to spend 4 billion on basic repairs, and buying new MEDICAL equipment.

[Andrew]

In article , geoff writes

The Dollar is currently suffering from benign neglect and is now very weak. (£1 = $1.79). Most economists are worried that this parallels the period up to Jimmy Carters presidency. My 2p FWIW, in 5 years we will be back to hyper inflation and interest rates of 10% +, once the Federal Reserve belatedly try to correct the problem.

[Andrew]

In article , Andy Hall writes

No pits !!

Try living in East Anglia in the 24/7 region :-)

When productivity actually went up. For 50% of men over 50, its now a 0 day week.

What factories, don't we import all our cars,steel,coal,food now ?

18% statutory council tax hike in West Sussex.

It's freely floating, so not relevant

If any other country allowed its currency to do what that USD does, the IMF would have been sent in and forced up the domestic price of water, gas, food etc. long ago. However the Yanks can say, "It's our dollar, but YOUR problem".

[Andrew]

In article , Andy Hall writes

But they are back !.

Spice Girls ????

[Andrew]

Complete waste of time unless the US and China are onboard

[Colin Wilson]

Kyoto came much later didn`t it ?

[Ed Sirett]

...and you can't make nuclear weapons from coal whilch was likely the real reason to subsidize the nuclear industry.

[Capitol]

I can agree with this, if you go to an american gp, the practice likely has it's own blood testing facility and maybe it's own cat scan! I was very surprised to find a cat scan facility in the local shopping area last year, with a cost of $500 for a complete cat scan. Regards Capitol

[Capitol]

Complete waste of time anyway, more European cars( + eastern Europe) and with bigger engines, more central heating all over, a throwaway western economy and massive economic/population growth in the east, mean Kyoto is doomed to failure. Regards Capitol

[Huge]

Whatever. But Bliar has still signed.

[Colin Wilson]

One of my colleagues was told he had a 6 month wait for an appointment=20 for a cat scan, but he could have it done the NEXT DAY at THE SAME PLACE=20 if he paid ~=A3300

a) this is extortion / blackmail courtesy of the NHS

b) it turned out he had cancer in the spine, and a mutual friend says=20 he`ll be lucky to make it to March...

Now, looking at (b) - he would still not have had the scan from the NHS,=20 so the only treatment by then would be "here are some painkillers, go=20 home and die"

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[Andy Hall]

Certainly it is in the context of the way the NHS is set up to operate. It is the notion that treatment should be free of charge at the point of delivery that is wrong. In other countries with socialised medicine, it is normal to pay something for treatment. For example, I was somewhat surprised to learn from a friend in Sweden that one pays to visit the GP.

Very sadly, it doesn't seem as though the prognosis would have been different. What is wrong about state provided healthcare is that the state gets to decide on the policy regarding who gets treatment and who does not and that appears to be based on a perception of the individual's value to society by virtue of their age and health record. I don't like the notion of the state playing God in this way.

There is something very wrong with a system where I, and my company pay large sums of money into a black hole and receive no level of service for it, such that I then have to pay again for private health cover in order to obtain something close to a usable level of service.

I can accept that in a civilised society there needs to be a safety net for those who cannot afford to pay for their own healthcare. For the majority, I am sure that they would receive better treatment by making their own arrangements and not paying 20% of gross income to the government to do it for them.

.andy

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[Niall]

Yeah, and *some* of *them* have to be the people you encounter every day who take home plenty of money for doing not a lot and that badly. Many of whom IME work for the public sector.

[Niall]

Just as well, then, given that it's totally unneccesary.

[PoP]

::Devils Advocate Mode ON::

What I find very disturbing is that those people who can afford that, and attempt to do so, are instantly penalised. If your employer provides discounted (or free) BUPA health care then you get taxed on it as a benefit-in-kind.

So if you look at this logically, you subscribe to an insurance scheme which is going to remove quite a lot of your dependency on the NHS for any non-trivial medical problem which arises for you and probably your family. And you get awarded a larger tax bill as a result of your personal generosity towards the state.

Neat.

Whilst I probably wouldn't go so far as to give people a discount on their NI bill for taking out insurance I would remove the fiasco of placing a tax on top of their insurance premium.

PoP

Replying to the email address given by my news reader will result in your own email address being instantly added to my anti-spam database! If you really want to contact me try changing the prefix in the given email address to my newsgroup posting name.....

[Andy Hall]

It's actually worse than that.

There is an insurance tax on the premium.

The employee pays tax on the premium as a benefit in kind in effect at their highest marginal rate.

They pay national insurance on the benefit in kind.

The employer pays national insurance on the benefit in kind.

This is why a voucher system makes eminent sense.

It provides a safety net for those unable to make their own provision, ensures that those who would not otherwise actually do and for those who wish to contribute more to their healthcare can do so and get something for it. This could be achieved with far less administration than is currently used in managing benefits and the resources spent on actual health provision.

Primary and secondary education should be treated similarly.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Dave Plowman]

I'd love to know which part of the public sector gets plenty of money for doing not a lot. Apart from MPs, of course.

[IMM]

A low fee in most cases. This prevents the hypochondriacs from cluttering the surgeries.

[IMM]

Most CH is natural,gas and emissions on boilers are getting better by legislation. MG is very clean at the worst of time, with high efficiency burners super clean. The main problem is mainly power stations and car emissions, with some industry adding too. Domestic CH in the near future will not be a big problem.