Mallory

Why does any need BUPA in the UK? I thought everyone was to be treated equally.

jumping doris

Well, he didn't need it but it was part of his package. We weren't on it.
I have never said the NHS was equal but at least it's there.

In 18 years he used his BUPA insurance once, the rest of the time he used the NHS. But I suppose that will be wrong in your eyes too. And anyway I don't have to justify anything to you.

THe thing that you seem to be forgetting is that neither of the two health threads are about me and my family or what we did or didn't have or if we are posh or not. They are about a system that leaves out the people who can't pay.....all the millions of them and that just isn't right.

Dan725

You don't need it - but if you've got it, you get what you pay for. Unlike the wank US system, where its co-pay this, co-pay that, clause excluded, out of plan, maximum coverage limit, conditions not covered, etc, etc, etc.

Xebedee

Because the UK is a free country and as such you have freedoms of choice. If Bupa didnt exist, then the health system would be essentially socialised.

fatbrit

Is that "need" as in the American or the British sense?

Tootsie Frickensprinkles

No one needs BUPA or PPP in the UK, some people choose to buy plans and many people are offered plans as part of competitive employment packages. Plans are also often offered for longer tenure and more senior positions to encourage employee loyalty. Despite what your average American is taught or believes it's a very big mixed economy in the UK and as Xebedee pointed out, we therefore have choice.

In both of the big companies I worked for in the UK everyone at every level was offered PPP after 6 months. I had all 4 wisdom teeth removed in luxurious surroundings in Bushy Private, by the same surgeon who would have done my teeth at Mount Vernon had I not had PPP. It was done in 11 days instead of 14 weeks. I chose not to wait because I didnt have to, by the end of three months I may well have been taking pain killers .. I don't know, but it would hardly have killed me. My monthly premiums were something like 17 quid. The bill for my op and overnight stay cost 900 8 years ago, I dont know what PPP actually paid. My uninsured SIL had 20 minutes of day patient surgery last year for a real value 1200 bucks, which she is still in debt for!

With the exception of one GP specifically (I left that sugery) I and my family have always had fantastic NHS treatment. From the basics, to electives to major heart sugery and treatment for long term terminal conditions as well as mental health care. Lord only knows what my family would have had to deal with in the USA when my father was alive. I know for a fact I wouldn't have the life I have today. I'm one of those people that learnt very early on that I'm all right Jack, and it'll never happen to me is all bollocks. People's blindness to this beggers belief.

Very stupidly and naively I just took on board what the OH proclaimed about US healthcare (having actually never used it himself) without looking into it myself, I honestly believe had I known before hand I would never have agreed to move.

The NHS is not perfect, I dont think recent changes have been for the better either but given your alternative ... **** that :curse: