The Daily Mail
May 24, 2004
More pay up to beat NHS queue
By Jo Thornhill
Long waiting lists are forcing more people to turn their backs on the NHS and pay for major operations such as hip replacements and cataract surgery, according to a new report.
Research by YouGov has found that 53% of people are prepared to pay for a hip replacement operation – which can cost as much as £9,000 in a private hospital – rather than wait for free treatment from the state. It is not unusual to wait 12 months for a hip replacement operation on the NHS.
Neil Armitage, marketing director at Exeter Friendly Society, which commissioned the research, says people are often willing to give up luxuries such as a holiday or a new car to pay for treatment.
Private healthcare is expensive, but there are ways to cut costs for those who do not have health insurance and do not want to pay top prices. For example, Go Private, owned by Exeter Friendly Society, will find the cheapest deal. For an annual subscription of £34.95, it can help patients find treatment at the lowest price from private hospitals nationwide.
http://www.thisismoney.com/20040524/in78621.html
Exeter Friendly Society Limited:
http://www.exeterfriendly.co.uk/
Comment: Private markets work, for some. When unacceptable queues develop
in a government-run national health service, private market medicine allows
you to buy your way to the front of the queue… if you have the money.
Many nations have demonstrated that queues are best managed by controlling
capacity. Ensuring adequate capacity prevents excessive queues, while avoiding excess capacity prevents the waste and adverse outcomes of over-utilization.
If the wealthier, politically influential sector is allowed private access to services covered by the public program, then political support for the public program declines significantly. A chronically underfunded public program cannot ensure that there will be enough capacity to prevent excessive queues.
But then lucrative private health markets in parallel with public programs exemplify the magic of the marketplace. Even with inadequate capacity in an
under-funded health care delivery system, the private market provides timely
access that the public program can’t… if you have the money.
Fortunately, in the United States, the $1.8 trillion that we are spending on health care is enough to ensure adequate capacity for everyone. But we still need a universal, public insurance program to make it work. Turning our health care dollars over to the private plans in the marketplace just isn’t doing it.