Quoting Ant McWatt April 26th: "A huge expense for the NHS is caused by the relatively expensive medical equipment and drugs provided by _private_ companies. [As such] the UK government should set-up publicly owned divisions within the NHS to make equipment and drugs itself. The quality of healthcare could therefore be gradually improved in the UK by transferring funds away from shareholders' profits and into more worthwhile expenditure such as intensive care units and operating theatres."
Platt then asked April 26th: Does "transferring funds away from shareholders' profits into more worthwhile expenditures" mean "increase taxes on profits?" It would seem that's what it means in practice. Ant McWatt comments: Platt, No, I think the idea is that if the British government are serious about reducing the tax burden of the NHS on UK taxpayers, one of the better ways for them to do this would be to set-up in-house divisions within the NHS to provide drugs and medical equipment (and the research in these) rather than relying on private companies to provide them. You can see such a policy as largely cutting out the middle man i.e. the shareholders in these private companies. I state "largely" as there probably would be _in practice_ certain specialised drugs and equipment that only some private companies could provide (either due to licensing, technical or economic reasons). Best wishes, Anthony . _________________________________________________________________ Could you be the guest MSN Movies presenter? Click Here to Audition http://www.lightscameraaudition.co.uk moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
