this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
5 points (77.8% liked)

United Kingdom

5393 readers
302 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Photuris@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

So long as both public and private exist, and the existence of private options doesn’t create incentives to erode funding of the public option (that’s the big danger), that’s fine.

People who can afford it choosing private options frees up the queue for the public option. And they’re still funding the public option. Likewise, when the private option innovates, those innovations eventually make their way to the public space. A public option also forces the private facilities to keep costs relatively competitive, even as they do charge for premium service. They can’t go apeshit on charges like the American facilities do.

Alas, private companies are incentivized to push for dismantling the public option, so it’s up to the people to protect it. A less-than-stellar option that’s available to all is definitely something worth having and protecting.

[–] purplemonkeymad@programming.dev 8 points 1 month ago

Doesn't help that the Tories were "stressing" the NHS for years, which makes it harder for things to get back on track.

[–] lost@lemmy.wtf 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, but having to wait four years because you are poor doesn't sound fair to me.

[–] Photuris@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago

It’s not.

But here in the US, we just die, so.

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Private health companies often use the same facilities and stuff as public health. It ends up basically paying to jump the queue. Also the private health companies take the low risk, glamorous stuff and leave the complex, high risk, unglamorous stuff to public health.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.

[–] LordOfLocksley@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Oh I completely agree. Private and public funding options should be working in harmony, but private must be prevented from overreaching into the public sector