Is free health-care good or bad ?

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Most things in our lives we obviously have to pay for but I seem think that we, in the UK are lucky to have a National Health Service where you can get medical treatment free of charge.

Swings and roundabouts. Good if you do not have the funds to py for healthcare. Bad in other ways as there are usually long waiting lists which are often years long to have operations and other things done like having a tooth removed etc.

Like many things when it involves OPM (other people's money) it's a mix of good and bad.

Decent health care is/should be a human right. Our society now has an unprecedented amount of knowledge about human health, disease prevention and medical intervention.

All forms of modern health care aren't "free". Somebody somewhere is paying for it.
"The government" isn't a magical money printing machine, it merely takes money off people and redistributes it as it sees fit.

Therefore health care isn't free. It's something that's provided by pooling the resources of many others for mutual benefit. Certainly in Australia we have Medicare which provides a universal service to all citizens, however it certainly isn't by any means free. Along with having a good proportion of my income involuntarily garnished by the government in the form of tax, they also take another 2% of my gross earnings in Medicare levy. Furthermore I am blackmailed into having private health insurance or else the government will take another 1 - 1.5% of my gross earnings in a surcharge.

It's good in that anyone and everyone have access to a basic level of health services. It's bad in that like most other things that are just given to people for "free" many patients in the public health system here don't value it.

I think it's great and would hate to be without it. Better than having to worry about paying when you're ill and better than some insurance company skimming off a load of profits for no reason.

It's a good thing because society benefits from healthy people contribuiting to it by being capable of working and consume, sick and dying people can't contribuite to society as much.

I think it is a good thing having some sort of universal health care. Nobody who genuinely needs help misses out (although waiting lists can certainly be long). In the 21st century I expect this in any first world country.

I guess in my last post I was verbalising my frustration with the funding arrangements here in Australia. Being hit up every taxtime for Medicare levy as a percentage of my gross income and on top of that being blackmailed into having private health insurance. I'd actually prefer to carry my own risk and pay for healthcare/surgery out of my own pocket if I need to. In all I pay several thousand dollars each year and don't have any say in where it goes and how it is used. The blackmail to have private insurance in particular irks me, I'm already forking out for Medicare, which is for everyone, why should I be forced to also have private health insurance?

I've worked in a number of states in both the public and private health care systems. Each brings with it pros and cons. Sadly I've found a good number of people receiving care in the public system to be very ungrateful. Some bring with them the mentality that everything is "free". These are frequently people who have become accustomed to being given stuff by our generous social welfare system. They usually don't want to (won't?) take responsibility for their own health and expect us to be magicians that fix them. Overall I find patients in the private system to be more civil to deal with and willing to take responsibility for keeping themselves healthy.

NHS is free, and yet it's also very, very expensive.

As somebody who lives in the American healthcare hellscape, I would say it is very good. Here I have to worry every time I have a health problem if it is covered by my insurance, and then even if it is there is usually still a hefty copay. Many Americans can't justify going to the doctor for minor issues and regular health checkups, and then have to spend way more when that minor issue balloons into a bigger health problem. It isn't just unhealthy, it's more expensive long-term. I have family that lives in England, and yeah they have long wait lists for things that aren't an immediate risk, but they also can always afford to go to the doctor. You know the US spends nearly twice as much of our GDP on healthcare than the UK? And we spend more per capita.

I think that while there are some cons to free health care (long waiting lists, probably high taxes, perhaps not-so-motivated medical staff etc.), the pros outnumber them. As a disabled person, I often wish we had free health care too, but that would mean even higher taxes in our already highly taxed country (Finland), so I can see why that hasn't become a thing.

Yes.

Just like everything else, there are good and bad points.

While it would be great to have free preventive care, free emergency care, and free prescriptions, having some anonymous bureaucrat or computer algorithm decide whether or not I receive needed care is out of the question.

What about elective treatment?  Reconstructive surgery that may never restore full function to a damaged limb may make sense (hey, at least I can walk now!), but what about rhinoplasty and breast augmentation when neither is necessary for maintaining a person's life?  And if cosmetic surgery is to be brought into question, then what about reassignment surgery?

Too many questions, it seems.

If I was attacked by a shark, worrying about how much my injuries are going to cost will be the last thing on my mind.

Until the bill arrives.

Here, we have both national health care and private practices, and people can freely mix both.
Most often, people choose private practices to:
1. Avoid long waiting lists for non-essential treatments;
2. Simplify the route to the desired specialist (again, saving time).
National healthcare is chosen for whatever one can't afford privately, for things than can wait and for simple "leave&prescription, doc's stamp required" visits.

I'm in Canada, and a lot of times it's good except when I have to wait for surgery which I had to wait years for an operation once and wish I had had it sooner. A friend of mine is having bad stomach problems, but he has to wait about a year to see a specialist about it since they are backed up.

I wish we had both systems, where you can choose the free option or the paying one. I mean if you can choose whether to have a government payed defense attorney, vs one you choose to hire yourself, why can't the same two systems be in the medical field...

If you live in Ontario like I do, you would have likely observed the Liberals and Conservatives have gutted our Healthcare for decades as well. It became painfully evident during our first lockdown and now this third lockdown shows money didn't go where it mattered the most. And of course the reliance on delivery of vaccines at the Federal level didn't help anyone either when there were canadian businesses willing to develop them and they got shot down


There are certainly costs to free Healthcare and you still have to pay for dental if you don't have insurance coverage.

But there are no laws in the legal system that says a company cannot develop its own vaccine as long as they have proper doctors, is there?