The Investments Thread

[Storrsy]

Exactly how it should be. A service which is free will always have demand outstripping supply. Anyone who's been to a UK a and e or even gp waiting room knows what I mean.

Personally I think I would favour a subsidised system much like dentists were when you could still get an NHS one! but not necessarily free at the point of use. The worry with private and insurance based systems is you become at the mercy of the insurance companies. A friend had a triple bypass which would have cost £14k to go privately- not everyone has that kind of money hanging around and the costs pale into insignificance if your being treated for cancer or something other ongoing illness. I don't think it would be wrong to have to pay a flat rate fee to your GP or perhaps even A&E £15-20 would cut out alot of time wasters but if it's something your genuinely worried about than surely thats a small price to pay to get it seen to.

 

[Lancs Lad]

Personally I think I would favour a subsidised system much like dentists were when you could still get an NHS one! but not necessarily free at the point of use. The worry with private and insurance based systems is you become at the mercy of the insurance companies. A friend had a triple bypass which would have cost £14k to go privately- not everyone has that kind of money hanging around and the costs pale into insignificance if your being treated for cancer or something other ongoing illness. I don't think it would be wrong to have to pay a flat rate fee to your GP or perhaps even A&E £15-20 would cut out alot of time wasters but if it's something your genuinely worried about than surely thats a small price to pay to get it seen to.

Crap thing is when you need to decide between paying 14k and seeing next Christmas or wait for NHS and possibly not....

I utterly believe my dad would have been dead 5 years earlier than he was had it not been for private treatment. My lads had a grandad and learnt stuff they never would have due to that. That's how real it is....and I shudder to think how much NI he put in to the pot in his working life.

 

[Jimoz]

As I understand it @Storrsy thats how oz is. You pay a small amount at GP and then claim a certain amount back via bulk billing. You can also have full private insurance or rely on the state. I think they also have to pay more for their medication over there.

Actually @Gecko You can get bulk bill free at point of use GP over there now. We had to use one for my son on holiday. I'd have paid if required though. Once the population starts getting a taste all your GPs might end up like that? People love free s**t.

 

[Storrsy]

Crap thing is when you need to decide between paying 14k and seeing next Christmas or wait for NHS and possibly not....

I utterly believe my dad would have been dead 5 years earlier than he was had it not been for private treatment. My lads had a grandad and learnt stuff they never would have due to that. That's how real it is....and I shudder to think how much NI he put in to the pot in his working life.

I don't know how it works though if insurance cos decided that an illness has been self inflicted or some other way of making a payout void- imagining a position where the care they need to survive can not be paid for and there is no NHS to turn to either The more the system went over to private i'd imagine (looking at the state of alot of people) that it simply would be a sustainable business model for an insurance co.

The problems with the NHS as I see it is a combination of mismanagement (very easy to spend other people's money without accountability) , overuse and in many cases lack of self care, wife sees all sorts, they want everything and think they deserve it but can't be arsed to put the effort into help themselves- the system can wipe their arse for them so to speak, I'm sure if people had to pay for a proportion of basic everyday services the overuse would cut down dramatically, a good government could easily get round the accountability and mismanagement

 

[V8Druid]

Exactly how it should be. A service which is free will always have demand outstripping supply. Anyone who's been to a UK a and e or even gp waiting room knows what I mean.

and 95% of those sat about in waiting rooms will not have any real need to be there

on the very rare occasions I have a need to see a GP, I can ring for an appointment and they'll say ...
" Ooh we've not seen you in a looooong time -- this afternoon be OK? "
I may have a life-long term, life threatening condition, but I'm 'on top of it' most of the time and don't need my 'hand held', on a weekly basis, by a GP who has to spend most of their time dolling out aspirins, etc., to muppets blocking their waiting rooms and the system in general, for no good cause/reason/excuse.

If it wasn't, as Jim says, "free" then 95% of the issue would vanish and the majority of these "muppets" 'd have to 'man up' and deal with their non-existent issues themselves ..
got a head ache? take some aspirin/paracetamol and it'll go ..
don't need a highly trained medic to tell you that and you deffo do not need to be choking up the system to wait to hear them tell you the same.

 

[V8Druid]

and 95% of those sat about in waiting rooms will not have any real need to be there

on the very rare occasions I have a need to see a GP, I can ring for an appointment and they'll say ...
" Ooh we've not seen you in a looooong time -- this afternoon be OK? "
I may have a life-long term, life threatening condition, but I'm 'on top of it' most of the time and don't need my 'hand held', on a weekly basis, by a GP who has to spend most of their time dolling out aspirins, etc., to muppets blocking their waiting rooms and the system in general, for no good cause/reason/excuse.

If it wasn't, as Jim says, "free" then 95% of the issue would vanish and the majority of these "muppets" 'd have to 'man up' and deal with their non-existent issues themselves ..
got a head ache? take some aspirin/paracetamol and it'll go ..
don't need a highly trained medic to tell you that and you deffo do not need to be choking up the system to wait to hear them tell you the same.

and just to qualify that ....
must be in excess of 4 maybe 5 years since I last saw my GP - think he's retired - have had plenty of issues in that time, but now't I'd consider warranted 'running' to him with ...
they're usually chasing me to go see them, but'll call and ask why?
I feel 'OK', so don't see the point in wasting their time !!

Been down the stone steps, out by the back door here, on my arse twice in the last couple of months (slick as ****) ..
currently hobbling 'round on one an' a bit legs - right knee is 'not well' after twisting it, when I landed on it, sort of twisted up behind my back
I don't need a GP or A&E to tell me it'll get better - eventually, when the bruising goes and it's had enough rest. Don't consider I've broken anything or done anything that won't heal.
Got a med.s safe full of pain killers, that I can take as/if I need to ...
end of ...

I'll save the 'pro's' time for when I really do have an issue that needs them

 

[Conor]

Nhs sounds much the same as irish health system.... my old man had a fall off ladder christmas 2 years ago fell a good 5m, ambulance job had to be resuscitated in ambulance, admitted into hospital amazingly nothing was broken and sent home that evening He wasnt right after it brought him back in told nope nothing wrong give meds a chance, couple more days getting worse brought him back told youve got pneumonia could be from the shock of the fall, more meds youll be fine. I was flying back to dubai that night and he became seriously unwell, mam called an ambulance took over 3 hrs for ambulance to arrive, my mother was telling them she will bring him in could be there in her car in 20 minutes, they kept telling her no dont move him, how he survived that all i dont know.... he had blood clots from the fall and had travelled to his heart, stuck in hospital for weeks and has never fully recovered and regained his strength, all because of something that should have been picked up straight away.

Over here is an excellent system, virtually all private but your company who sponsors your visa legally has to provide you insurance. Obviously there are different levels of insurance but i can guarantee you the s**t hospitals here are better than the best ones at home

 

[Furniss]

in france its a mix

 

[V8Druid]

in france its a mix
View attachment 79158

have heard, rightly or wrongly, that the French healthcare is very good??

 

[doobin]

Silver up another 4% in a day, same with platinum and palladium.

 

[Furniss]

have heard, rightly or wrongly, that the French healthcare is very good??

Everyone I know whos been in says its very good - lad who works part time for me tried to end his life prematurely by pulling out on a truck (no reflection on his wages) hes just got out and said it was really good - not used it myself as yet - but apparently its under strain (what isnt ?) there is though a problem with local gp's, old ones retire no replacement - afaik they are trying to address the problem by making it a requirement that newly qualified gp's do a stint at a rural practice, or some such thing.
we had no doctor for a few years but then they put up a set of portacabins with about 4 gp's in and I went there for a medical other day and it seemed really slick, apparently they are in the process of renovating an old municipal building into permanent setup.
dentists are a problem - we travel 1hr30 currently cos local one is a butcher from somewhere who speaks worse french than me and tbh I could probably do similar standard dentistry mysen

 

[Jimoz]

(no reflection on his wages)

sorry but had to laugh at that

 

[Jimoz]

Silver up another 4% in a day, same with platinum and palladium.

I hear tesla up today too? I wish we would get out act together with automation over here the govt are stalling with letting the firms trial self driving taxis

 

[Furniss]

sorry but had to laugh at that

you were supposed to

 

[Gecko]

Actually @Gecko You can get bulk bill free at point of use GP over there now. We had to use one for my son on holiday. I'd have paid if required though. Once the population starts getting a taste all your GPs might end up like that? People love free s**t.

yeah, that's almost right.
The doctors are independent (not directly employed by Medicare)
The " bulk billing" is not the patient, but how the doctor claims the patients consultation against Medicare. Medicare has a schedule of fees the doctors can claim if they use the bulk billing process. Not all doctors use this process (for a host of valid reasons), so you pay the full consultation fee and claim back the Schedule Fee from Medicare leaving you out of pocket for the difference.

 

[Bri963]

Sure - not debating that, but "some" health care is better than none.
The UK is a 'high tax, high service' welfare state. Trump is trying to make the US a 'zero tax, zero service' economy (great for those that can afford it) (Oz is somewhere in between).

I think most on here would agree with the high tax part, but high service? My definition of high service is the Scandinavian countries, Holland, Belgium etc. where they do look after people, including state pensions that are liveable and state provided or subsidised care when you get older. Working people in the UK rarely get that kind of state support, it’s reserved for civil servants, politicians or newly arrived engineers and surgeons.

“My last comment on this subject is that you are making a hell of an assumption that I have not experienced the NHS first hand.”

It was a reasonable assumption seeing as you’re an Aussie/Kiwi apparently living or working in a south East Asian country.

 

[Gecko]

Like you, I have lived in many places - some more civilised than others.

 

[Storrsy]

My Father in law is Swedish and lived there his whole life. Sweden often seems to get put on a bit of a pedestal with regard quality of life but he paints quite a different picture, higher taxes overall and the dole office (or whatever equivalent is over there) flooded with Somalians who get plenty whilst having contributed nothing. I don't know what my point is really- either it's not always greener on the other side of perhaps that even a "good" system has cracks and it's easier to focus on them then the good stuff Personally speaking I don't feel too hard done by life in the UK (apart from the climate!) but get that it is probably quite location dependant too.

 

[TiltyShaun]

Respectfully, you have it all totally backwards. You need to change the way you think about money.

Gold is money. Turn the gold chart over and that is the chart for the devaluation of fiat currency.

I hold mainly physical as the paper market is crazy leveraged- no better than fiat. I have an etf in my isa though.

The end game is simply to preserve the purchasing power of my money. When I started stacking four years ago a days work with the micro digger at £350 would purchase a good sovereign. Now a days work with the 9 tonner at £850 won’t even purchase the same sovereign.

An excellent book to read on the history of the modern monetary system and the role gold has played in it (and will very likely play again soon) is Currency Wars by James Rickards. PM me your address and I’ll send you a copy.

Gold is a long term store of value. Full stop!!……

 

[doobin]

Gold is a long term store of value. Full stop!!……

It’s also insurance.

Buy gold, pray it never goes up (sharply). If it does, you’re gonna need it, and things won’t be pretty for the majority.

If it doesn’t go up sharply, if it’s outperformed over the long term (your lifetime) by stocks or bonds (highly unlikely/unheard of), well, that was the cost of the insurance policy

Silver closed for the week at an all time high of $103 / £76. I think the physical squeeze is real and I’m not cashing out. You can all laugh at me if it goes back down to £30 as I’ll have missed out on a new Deutz 125hp tractor with the profits. Couldn’t afford the loader on it yet but a couple more quid on the spot price should do that.

(I wasn’t actually seriously contemplating it, but an advert for it came up and I thought ‘that’s a lot of tractor for the money. Nice to see some dealers getting properly hungry!’)