bats

It was set up to be 'free at the point of delivery" and still is to a large extent. I don't understand why you are conflating returning residents with people on benefits. Either way the health care system is not, and should not be, a judgemental process deciding who is and isn't worthy. Perhaps your overhaul might include bringing back the Workhouse for those sciving n'er do wells

durham_lad

That’s good as NI contributions are what you need to receive your old age pension. These days it is 35 years so you may want to check your record with DWP either on line, on phone or by mail. If you are going to be missing some years you can pay the current year plus up to 6 back years with voluntary contributions. I got caught out because it was 30 years until a few years ago and when they changed it to 35 I was too late to add more. My wife was born in the same year as me but a different tax year (her November, me February) so squeaked out an extra year.

brits1

The NHS is funded mainly from general taxation supplemented by National Insurance contributions so we do pay for it….well you do if you work and my point is that if you only say worked here in the uk for a few years then went to live overseas for even more years and came back to the UK and not to work then there should be a payment of such before you are able to say have operations or expensive treatments, the NHS is badly mismanaged and this is one of the reasons the NHS are always demanding more money from the government which does come from the working people here, now I am not at all against people who contributed for many’s years here and then left and came back for whatever reasons. I just think it is not really fair on the hardworking people who have lived here all their lives and are kept being told how much more money their taxes are going to be take out of their taxes to go to the NHS because it cannot keep up with demand.

christmasoompa

Lots of people that go to live overseas still pay tax in the UK and also make NI contributions though.

It's based on residency, not what somebody has paid in. That seems the fairest way to do it to me otherwise you'd have all sorts of inequalities. Following the same logic, somebody that's paid in much more via higher taxation should be more entitled than those who've paid less? Or those who've never paid in to it (stay at home mums of my parents generation for example) shouldn't get to use it at all?

bats

Exactly. covering all the resident population also means a healthy population which benefits society as a whole. The same with education which should not only be available to the wealthy. It only leads to division and unrest.

shelley748

Sending hugs and healing prayers to you both !

Piff Poff

just filled the forms in this year and caught up, now paying yearly. We're all good.

durham_lad

perfect

brits1

I am saying that the NHS needs a huge overhaul it basically is in this state because of poor management (all departments) over population , the money that is poured into the NHS is like a black whole without any countability and it does not help when other than those with good reason have not paid into the system, I have worked for the NHS for a long time (before and after I migrated) and I am shocked by the change.

bats

And what would your lack of good reasons include?

Piff Poff

Health care in Alberta is just as shocking.

BristolUK

...then you have saved the UK some money because you have not been using the NHS while living abroad.
Your argument is trotted out all the time when it comes to UK pensions not being uprated for people in certain countries (like Canada) but that money denied to some pensioners is less than the money the UK saved. You have to look at the bigger picture.

I've been in Canada since 2005. Canada has been providing my medical care since 2009 - expensive insulin for diabetes and so on, CKD care, regular blood tests, ongoing eye care, all sorts of stuff. Perhaps they should have denied me for only having been here 4 years. I've saved the NHS a fortune by being treated here and you want to force me to make some kind of payment to "re-qualify" should I return? Bigger picture.

brits1

I actually work in the NHS, I also volunteer for many charities in my free time so do not class me as some type of uncaring person…..all I can say is that they system needs to be changed it does not work both through miss management two many separate Hospital systems, each with their own suppliers etc charging varying costs for equipment that in itself is madness. The nurses should go back to training in the wards (learning in the job) and also bring back SEN’s I also do not know a nurse that struggles with money unless through personal troubles, I was never once forced to work overtime although I did work a lot of overtime as I wanted to earn money while it was being offered, if we were short staffed we had agency nurses who were just as reliable as contracted nurses, it has all changed now and honestly not for the best. I recently worked in a clinic which had very long waiting lists I was flabbergasted when people who had not been in the country for long literally went to the front of the queue and not because of urgency, now where is the fairness in that? As I have said before the NHS is not free and it is being abused and run poorly.

BristolUK

Okay, so why did they go to the front of the queue?

BristolUK

Perhaps the non Dialysis posts could be moved here or to its own thread?