There was a time not that long ago when going to University was subsidized by government for every elgible student in the uk.That went by the wayside because the uk is saddled with huge amounts of debt and needed to slashed the deficit. Germany has started to adopt an American style approach to letting companies fire and hired based on what is best for corporate Germany. This has created a growing class of working poor.

With the economies in europe weakening across the board and many with large amounts of debts, do you forsee the Uk government demanding deeper cuts to the safety network(NHS,or offering it only to the elderly ie usa medicare,in the name of austerity? With a growing population could the uk be heading toward private health coverage paid for by the individual? Iyo, how much longer will housing allowances be offered to abled body citizens? Or can the UK afford to keep in place todays helping hand for many decades to come?

About Germany Adopting the American style of hiring and firing. This has created a growing class of working poor? Opinion or based on evidence?

The NHS already is ageist and has been for a few years.

Half of doctors believe NHS is 'institutionally ageist'

A total of 47 per cent thought the NHS was ageist while 55 per cent said they were worried themselves about how the NHS would treat them in old age.

The survey, of 201 doctors who specialise in caring for older people and are members of the British Geriatrics Society (BGS), was carried out for the charity Help the Aged.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/el...ly-ageist.html

Was watching a German news report the other day that pointed out how angry many Germans were about the new power given to companies by the government to hire and fire at will.In America that same law is called "the right to work law".Really means that companies can reduce personel based on the economic health of that company without notice or compensation to workers.
It gives the company the right to fire,reduce the salary of a worker(s) in order to keep from laying off personel and hurting the production of that company.Basicly, the consideration for employees becomes secondary if at all.Not every state in America has the law.Usually states were unions have been outlawed or their influence minimized,traditionally that would be states in the southeast.And yes the new German law is copied from the American law.

The UK NHS is a model for the rest of the world to admire.In the end, money will determine if the UK can continue to afford to offer everyone living in the UK state subsidized health care.To be honest I am quite surprised that the commerce driven political parties in the UK have not tried to use health care as another way to make money.

That is how the republican party in america view the health of an American citizen.They think if you are sick the private sector should supply you with assistance but for a price of course. Mitt Romney said the other day that if you have pre-existing conditions, the insurance company should not be forced to insure a bad risk.

Yes, but not by necessity, by ideology. The conservatives want less centralized government, more individual choice, more corporate takeover of public services. It's what they've always wanted and what they think is best for the country. Therefore, they're using the current crisis to push through radical changes that might otherwise be unacceptable to the public.

Still I don't think there is any evidence of an increasing working poor in Germany. At least not that you have demonstrated.

I agree with you. The NHS was crippled by the Tories the last time they were in power. Now they're seeking to do the same again. They manage to find money for the things they believe in, but anything else is 'too expensive'.

Political suicide for any UK party to tamper with 'free at point of use'. Long may that be the case.

When Labour were last in power, they talked about bringing in a £40 charge for each visit to a GP. Same old same old, really; too many taking out of the NHS and not enough paying in.

The NHS use to give us free destistry, but now that has gone and we pay towards the costs of treatment (although sometimes that NHS charge is more expensive than private treatment).

There has always been a "postcode lottery" where you get better drugs in one area for a complaint, than in another PCP for that same complaint.

I've read a lot of "they wouldn't dare do that" on various forums i.e. Labour bringing in private ATOS medicals for those who self proclaimed to be too sick to work and wanted welfare for life; this government scaling back the SMI (support for mortgage interest welfare payments) and Legal Aid, but they have dared to as they had to. The UK needs to respond to what is happening in the country with it's open borders, or go under. Plus we have inherited a lot of debts from the last (Labour) government; greater than the debts we had after WW2. Then there are the problems with the Euro. Scary stuff.

I agree money is short and more individual responsibility must be expected of everyone.But is the uk ready to accept an American style type safetynet such as you pay 30% of your health care and the government picking up the bill for the 70%? It does feel like the Tories are heading down that road, a little at a time, bit by bit.And I agree with Sally that the current downturn in the economy will be used as the justification for change.

Labour recognised that the NHS could carry on as it was and was talking about the need to bring in charges. They pointed out the NHS was the third (now is the forth) biggest employer in the world and we are just an island. Even the dentist treatment changed again i.e. no more free braces for children unless their teeth were (some measurement) out. No free replacment braces for children for lost or broken braces. Set dentist treatment bands. Many NHS dentists' left the NHS to become private dentists when Labour brought those bands in, so that saved the Labour government even more money as many people can't find an NHS dentist now.

Then the welfare bill got so big that the Labour government revealed that the money they got from income tax now didn't cover the welfare bill (for the first time ever). They realised they had gone overboard with spending on welfare claimants, hence why they gave contracts to private medical companies like ATOS and the many 'back to work providers' private companies, to get the workshy, working and off welfare.

Labour had already tackled the cost of funding higher education, by bringing in student tuition fees in England and Wales and making the new law of returning Brits having to have lived in the UK or EEA for the 3 previous years before they could get home fees and student funding.

As I said before, never has a party s!@t on their own voters as much as the Labour party. Yet you have to hand it to them, the beauty of it all is that there are still some Labour voters who blame it all on the Tories No wonder Blair is called "Teflon Tony".

Oh wacko

I thought you might find this interesting.Was mentioned in PMQ, that some in the Tory party have introduced a proposal giving uk companies the legal ability to make firing employees a bit easier.Don't know if that proposal will go any where but it would seem that Germany is not the only country that would like to put profit ahead of the workers by using American style tactics.