Deancm_MKII

According to the link I posted previously.

Deancm_MKII

Here's an excerpt of a letter from the Director of National Insurance:

"Class 1 contributions

Class 1 contributions are paid by people who work as employee's and have earnings above a specified limit called the earning's threshold (currently £110 per week).
Payment of Class 1 contributions may, depending on the amount of contributions paid and the years for which payment has been made, entitle a contributor to the following benefits:
Basic State Pension, State Second pension, Short term Employment and Support Allowance, Maternity Allowance, Jobseeker's Allowance, Bereavement Benefits.

Class 2 contributions

Class 2 contributions are a weekly flate-rate contribution paid by the self-employed. Payment of Class 2 contributions may, depending n the amount of contributions paid and the years for which payment has been made, entitle a contributor to the following benefits:
Basic State Pension, Short term Employment and Support Allowance, Maternity Allowance, Bereavement Benefits.

Class 3 contributions

Class 3 contributions are a weekly voluntary contributions which may be able to be paid by some people who wish to protect their benefit entitlement and who do not pay enough Class 1 or Class 2 contributions. Payment of Class 3 contributions may, depending on the amount of contributions paid and the years for which payment has been made, entitle a contributor to the following benifits:
Basic State Pention, Bereavement Benefits."

There's no mention of the NHS in there, so yes, the NHS are wrong.

ABCDiamond

And I thought that Centrelink had problems

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Don't get sick. You will find it's suddenly a lot more than free.

Even using a bulk billing GP I have paid out several hundred dollars this year between a family of four... if I were to include dental work my eldest son had then we are waaaayyyyy over the $10k mark.

MartinLuther

Not siding one way or the other but what happens to Employer contributions?

And although these contributions say they entitle you to a benefit it doesn't state that that is where the money goes. I might be wrong but I thought a lot of the money collected when the NI scheme started was spent on nationalising industries. Which is why they have to pay the current pensioners out of the current payments rather that the pensioners' original payments.

John_R

I wish the ambo levy wasn't in your elecy bills here in QLD but was something extra like in the other states. I'm an ambo and fed up of being called and used as a free taxi to the doctors at ED. At least 80% of the 000 calls I attened to can be safely managed through a GP.

I do believe we should have an up front call out fee of say $30, this would prevent silly calls for tooth ache, stub toe, headache, 'I vomited', I feel sick, I'm drunk, I have ran out of meds, my bed needs changing, back ache for 2 weeks, belly ache for a week, my knee feels strange, when I pee it hurts, what's this wart?, and the list goes on, the age for these individuals ranges from 20-50 so it's not the in-secure elderly but our working active community.

Oh well my rants over

sorry

John

iamthecreaturefromuranus

I think most people would agree with you as well. It's the $4000 bill for a three mile trip to hospital that scares the crap out of people in NSW.

moneypenny20

That's all well and good but if I call an ambulance for my daughter having an Epileptic seizure (which I've been told to by her specialist) why should we then have to waste time with you taking and recording and providing receipt of that $30. Should I or her always have $30 in a pocket 'just in case'? Most definitely charge anyone who calls one for one of your above scenarios, but if you get to a job where the person obviously needs an ambulance, you do your job, not become some sort of shop assistant.

With your idea, the usual happens - penalise the legitimate instead of finding a way of stopping the wasters.

Also, I don't think it makes any difference how the insurance is paid, people in other states and territories who get their insurance separately will still consider you to be a taxi or a nose blower because in their heads they've paid for that service. It's no different in the UK where the Ambulance Service is considered 'free'.

ABCDiamond

That is a good point.

Deancm_MKII

I have no idea.

ABCDiamond

So many people get it wrong...

Even Gordon Brown, during the Election Debate on 15th April 2010, repeatedly mentioned using the National Insurance to pay for health care.

No wonder so many people think like that.

Bermudashorts

It's just income to the government and it really doesn't matter where it comes from or what it is called, they will spend it wherever they decide to spend it.

Deancm_MKII

The point being though it's disingenuous for the government to say that NI pays for the NHS when the truth is it doesn't.

John_R

For someone like yourself you wouldn't think twice about paying a fee, and it wouldn't be an up front payment. It would though deter some of those who have petty complaints and haven't been bothered seeing the GP or self medicate. This works well in some european countries.

As for the UK, it's everyones legal right to call 999, but once the emergency services were on scene the caller couldn't dictate what they should do. I.E. If i arrived and you had a tooth ache and you wanted to go to hopistal, I can refuse you to take you in the ambualnce.

People don't realise how few ambulances service cities. Its probably one ambo per 15,000-20,000 pop and when you think 70-80% of their call could be handled by a GP it's a worrying thought that you daughter could be having a siezure and the nearest vehicle is attending something trivial and you have to wait for one to travel from another area taking 1-2 minutes longer. It's a constant jugling act to try and cover calls with vehicles, especially when the genuine calls come in as some require two vehicles.

I do love it when people say 'I pay taxes and your wages so do this and that' I remind them that I to pay taxes and therefore I'm having to contribute to my own wage, therefore I have more of a say what happens now

John