Re: Healthcare reform Thank you for explaining your ideas. I take issue with

Comment on General Election 2010 Poll Results by Helen.

Re: Healthcare reform

Thank you for explaining your ideas. I take issue with the majority of it on principle but would like to pick up a few points:

“The NHS has improved in the last number of years (I have never said it hasn’t) but this doesn’t mean it’s marvellous now.”

You said you you felt an NHS problem was ‘having to wait until you’re half-dead or have bits falling off you before it’s treated”. This is a massive contradiction. I’m not stupid enough to suggest the NHS is perfect, but I have faith in it’s ability to improve and give help to the general population when they most need it.

“I would define self-inflicted ailments to be those directly as a result of general self-abuse such as smoking, heavy drinking, drug-taking, obesity (through own fault) and sporting activities with a high risk of incidence.”

If a person has clinical depression, leading to morbid obesity how would you categorise this patient? If a patient has a genetic propensity for caddiovascular disease, but also drinks above the recommended number of units of alcohol (like most of the population), how would your new system prove the underlying cause of that disease? I agree that people need to take responsibility for their own health, but I believe we should drive home the message of health promotion; healthy eating, smoking cessation, drug/alcohol awareness. The smoking ban is another thing I am pleased has happened in the UK over the last 10 years.

“Cutting GP appointments through (possible reimbursable) co-payment on consultations (you might think twice about bothering your GP for that funny twinge in your left leg that you had yesterday morning, if you had to pay something towards it!)”

Do you realise that normal Joe Bloggs on the street would probably avoid going to the doctors even more if you introduced this. People with early symptoms would put off their initial GP appointment (because they are skint), and then could ultimately become a late presentation of something much more serious. People in the UK can see their GP for free. A concept such as this is abhorrent to me as it would marginalise poorer people.

“You would have choice of using a basic low-cost Government hospital or a completely private medical institution depending on your level of cover and what you are prepared to pay for.”

For this statement, I read differently:- “You would have no choice; if you’re on a low income you’d be using a basic low-cost Government hospital which will have been scaled back and stopped making progress, if you can afford it you’d be using a completely private medical institution, and how good it is will depend on how much money you’ve got.”

I appreciate you have spent time on this and thought this through carefully, and accept that you are not a policymaker; but in a general sense you don’t seem able to relate to people on low incomes and how this might effect them.