Breaking: ACA Not Repealed.

[DanaC]

We have the NHS paid for by taxation - but we also have private medicine. Many reasonably decent remuneration packages will offer some kind of private medical insurance as one of the perks. Other employers offer access to discounted private medical insurance (I could have chosen that in my job).

And dental care is a mishmash of NHS and private provision. Often the same dentist will offer NHS treatments and also private treatments for the things NHS won't cover - e.g deep sedation is not available on NHS so has to charged at the private care cost, along with cosmetic stuff like veneers. But that same dentist may also do a root canal at NHS price.

The private and public systems interact quite a bit. The doctors working in the private sector will also often do work in the NHS and will almost certainly have been trained within the NHS and their university studies heavily subsidised with public funds. Private hospitals may have NHS procedures carried out there and some wards in NHS hospitals are primarily for private care.

The lines have become much more blurred in recent years. That said, when I started working at a hardware sales company in the late 90s BUPA* cover was one of the perks


*one of the main and best known providers of private medical care in the UK