Iain Hotchkies wrote:
>I'd be in favour of a flat charge of one pound per contact
>with a healthcare professional.
Sorry. It doesn't work, unless perhaps if you are really *bad* (meaning
politically incorrect) and make no exceptions.
We have a system just like that - little more than one pound for a GP or
hospital consultation, little more than two pounds for GP emergency
services, four po00unds for an A&E consultation. Doesn't deter people from
coming, specially because there are a lot of exemptions - diabetes, cancer
patients (quite fair, I think, actually) serious mental illness, pregnant
women, children until 15, and, the worst, everyone on a retirement pension
below the national minimum salary. This last group accounts for about 80% of
all our consultation - mainly LOL in NAD's...
My idealistic solution (dismissed as a crazy utterance around here): give
decent retirement pensions and make _everybody_ pay the consultation charge...
Cheers!
Armando
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Armando Brito de Sa'
Lisboa, Portugal
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