| CommunistHater said: It would cost over 3 trillion a year. You have to double every tax. |
Lemme guess, did FOX news tell you that bullshit? The NHS only costs £94 Billion in 2008/9 (source) and that served the entire of England. So how is a country that has 7 times the population going to cost 30 times more to run?!?!?
Do yourself a favour and stop listening to the right wing on this subject for just a second and think for yourself.
OT:
I could say the obvious answer and suggest raising taxes, but in the OP you asked me to expand on that. In Britain we have come up with a few creative ways to fund the NHS and cut some costs. For example prescriptions in the UK cost a flat rate, the medicine can cost more but the price is £7.20. However if you are ill, out of work, over 65 or a child you are exempt from having to pay. I understand that this generates/saves a lot of money for the NHS with the cost of producing medicines.
Also (even though it's never been properly confirmed by the government) some of the NHS is funded by taxes raised from products where the user will eventually require medical attention. In the UK we have high taxes on cigarettes and alcohol and essentially this high tax works in two ways.
1. It causes people to give up smoking and drinking which relieves the pressure on the NHS for having to treat subsequent conditions like lung cancer.
2. The people that choose to smoke and drink will eventually pay for their own treatment should they ever destroy their own body to the extent they require treatment.
This means that those that don't destroy their own body with smoke and drink wont pay much for the treatment of someone that has.
But most is funded by national insurance I believe.
However I do have one problem with NHS funding, it seems to spend a fair bit of money on needless red tape and administration, which is inefficient. I only really learnt that after living with three nurses for a year and being with my girlfriend who is a doctor... The doctors and nurses very skilled though.
