[thechat] hospital costs

[Martin Burns]

On 26 Sep 2006, at 20:40, Kevin Stevens wrote:

> I'm glad someone else mentioned how expensive the stay was, just  
> over $3,000
> a day! I know tests are expensive, £180 for an X-ray and £900 for  
> an MRI
> scan is what I have been billed for, but how can they justify that  
> much
> money?

Ummm because such things *are* expensive, particularly once you're  
paying for
a reasonable building for them to go in, enough staff on hand so you  
don't have
to wait 3 months for an appointment etc.

Think of it this way. 23.8% of the income of most UK employees ends  
up in
National Insurance contributions [1]. The income from this falls  
about £6bn
short of the total cost of providing NHS healthcare[2]. Think about  
how much
that is of your annual income, and that most people don't use NHS-funded
healthcare most of the time. Average cost per day in a hospital is  
pretty
high, no matter *who* provides it.

Yes, there'll be profit in what the private hospital charged you. But  
maybe
not so much as you'd think.

Cheers
Martin

[1] 11% deducted from the employee, 12.8% contributed by the employer
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail? 
r.l3=1073867932&r.l2=1073859218&r.l1=1073858808&r.s=sc&type=RESOURCES&it 
emId=1073790796

[2] http://budget2006.treasury.gov.uk/page_09.html

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