New York Times Examines Practice Of Some Britons To Pay Out-of-Pocket For Care Not Covered By National Health Service
Officials say that allowing people to pay out-of-pocket to "supplement government care would violate the philosophy of the health service by giving richer patients an unfair advantage over poorer ones," according to the Times. Britain's Health Secretary Alan Johnson told Parliament that patients "cannot, in one episode of treatment, be treated on the NHS and then allowed, as part of the same episode and the same treatment, to pay money for more drugs," adding, "That way lies the end of the founding principles of the NHS."
However, patients, physicians and officials say the practice occurs regularly -- particularly among people with cancer who "are increasingly likely to demand, and pay for, cutting-edge drugs that the health service considers too expensive to be cost-effective," the Times reports. Karol Sikora, a professor of cancer medicine at the Imperial College School of Medicine who has studied the issue, said, "You have a population that is informed and consumerist about how it behaves about health care information, and an NHS that can no longer afford to pay for everything for everybody" (Lyall, New York Times, 2/21).
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New York Times, analizeazã unele practici de britanicii de a plãti-de-buzunar pentru îngrijire care nu sunt reglementate de cãtre serviciul naþional de sãnãtate - New York Times Examines Practice Of Some Britons To Pay Out-of-Pocket For Care Not Covered By National Health Service - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate