The Anonymous Widower

Is The NHS The Cause Of Our Bad Health?

Reports such as this one on the BBC web site, show that our health is getting worse.

I have no complaints about the way, I’ve been treated in the last few years and the NHS was very good in their treating of my wife and son, and especially my granddaughter.

But I do wonder if this good service is the problem and contributes to our bad health.

How many smokers, drinkers and obese believe that the NHS will sort their problems out and of course at no cost to themselves or their families? If I had had a pound for every smoker, who said his father smoked all of his life and then he died at 90, I’d be a truly rich man.

If we had to pay directly for our health care, we might take more care of our health. Not that I’m advocating it, but we should all perhaps get a statement each year from our GP about our health and how much we’ve cost the NHS.

An aside here, is that for the last thirty years, I’ve had private health insurance, which I haven’t used much.  Because the NHS is so good round here, with two world-class hospitals a short bus ride away, I have now discontinued it. If though say, I had a small inconvenient problem like a damaged finger that needed an operation, I would probably pay to jump the queue.  But the cost would be well within what I saved on the insurance.

March 5, 2013 - Posted by AnonW | Health | NHS, Obesity, Smoking