Why Is Medical Care So Expensive?

[ToraToraTora]

A friend of mine's dog has a major cancer operation the other week and it cost roughly £2k. Now the same operation on a person would probably have been £50k. Essentially the same operation etc so why is medical care for people so astronomical? Yes I know we have the NHS etc but the costs are still paid.

[hc4361]

Liability insurance is a major factor.

[wolf63]

Any time that I have taken one of my furry family to the vet for an operation they are discharged that day. There is no period of after-care. I suppose that there are many variables to take into account.

I took Frankie (my avatar) to get four teeth out last week and it cost me £400. I plan to recoup this money by not giving him Dreamies (kitty cocaine) for a few decades.

[Old_Geezer]

No expert on medicine, pet or human, but is the dog op done by the equivalent of the GP vet in their back office ? I suspect the human is ensured lower risk.

[jno]

you'll get quite a lot of staff, not just the man with the knife, operating on a human. How many assistants did the vet have? Do they have the same oxygen equipment, screens going Beep! and monitoring blood pressure etc? (They may have, I don't know, I've never operated on a dog.)

[Baldric]

I have never paid for NHS Treatment, I do realise it has to be paid for, and my Doggy Care is taken care of by Tesco Pet Insurance @ £10, per month each.

[bednobs]

How did u come to the figure of 50k?

[237SJ]

Have you paid NI? If you have, then you have paid for NHS treatment

[Baldric]

In '09 I had a major heart operation and 9 weeks inpatient care, in the early '80s I was in a major RTC which ended my career in the RMs and involved a month or four of treatment, both of the above probably cost more than my lifetimes NI contributions, so no need to be pedantic.

[bednobs]

The ccgs get around 1-2 k per person per year to look after their populations healthcare needs. When u consider a nurse appt at the surgery costs around 50 quid and a gp appt a bit more let alone 250 for a night in hospital , subsidised dentists and prescriptions you can soon see the system relies on a majority of low users

[THECORBYLOON]

"[In 2010]the costs of cancer diagnosis and treatment across the UK NHS, private and voluntary sector were estimated by the report at £9.4 billion. This is equivalent to an average of £30,000 per person with cancer."

How did you arrive at the £50,000 figure?

[Peter Pedant]

I am not sure that it is so expensive

first time I have seen - vets are SOOOOOO expensive compared to the NHS which is FREE !

we havent go to heart searching about why childrens treatment is SOOOOOO expensive compared to adults considering how SMALLLL they are.
( yes I am afraid that there are NHS economists and planner scratching their heads over that one)

[Sqad]

Veterinary surgery.....Private Enterprise ( competitive)
NHS surgery........State Controlled (no competitive)

Vets have to compete with other veterinary practices on cost, wheres in the NHS, the Unions have arranged lucrative but unrealistic pay rises for NHS employees and are no competitive.

That is not the whole story however.

[ToraToraTora]

sqad it's cost a fortune in the uncivilised nations too like the US.

[Sqad]

TTT...the question is not about the USA , but the disparity in the UK.
yes I agree about private care, but which would you rather do, pay for first class treatment or have inferior treatment "free of charge?"

[Khandro]

Dogs can't sue vets if it all goes wrong.

[ToraToraTora]

No it's not sqad the NHS is merely our method of healthcare. I meant that people care is inexplicably expensive compared to essentially the same thing for animals. It does not matter how it if funded the question is the same.

[bednobs]

But you are just making up a figure it seems.

[Sqad]

TTT

"It does not matter how it if funded the question is the same."

and my answer is the same.

[ToraToraTora]

"Vets have to compete with other veterinary practices on cost, wheres in the NHS, the Unions have arranged lucrative but unrealistic pay rises for NHS employees and are no competitive." so the US medical system has no competition? right oh!

[Islay]

Cancer operation on a dog has a vet and maybe 2 vet nurses
Cancer operation on a human has a surgeon, a load of nurses the person that knocks you out etc etc