Why you need to pay more tax

[expat]

Someone who supports England at cricket.

N. Tebbitt

That's me out then!

[Meerkat]

Hmm, so im not british born so would guess i would be one of those statistics! however i've been a higher rate tax payer since the moment i arrived in the country, pay my council tax on time, have a private dentist, only been to the doctor 2 times in 7 yrs, Dont have any kids in education..... not much of a burden am i.

[Ardesco]

British nationals? What does that mean? Someone whose claimed asylum and got a British passport handed out after 3 years?

It means somebody who has a British passport!! They could be a British family that has lived here for the past 20 generations, a British family that has lived here for the past generation, immigrants who have been accepted as British Nationals. British nationals born and brought up in another country (Hong Kong before it was handed back), wives/daughters of Ex-soldiers from Nepal who have given blood sweat and tears for this country, etc, etc.

British Nationals!

[M_B]

My girlfriend is Italian, works as an Italian teacher in London, pays all her taxes etc and lives with me.

Are we saying that should she become pregnant that she should return to Italy to give birth ? Is the same true for mothers born here who move abroad ?

[Ardesco]

At the end of the day it is some fudged statistics that have been selected to generate some daily mail type "outrage". The statistics aren't quantified and mean nothing.

Stupid thing to bother posting about IMHO.

(I would have expected better from the BBC, but they have been moving away from accurate reporting to sensationalist crap for a long time now... )

[NotAllThere]

My wife is a midwife and 90%+ of all new bookings she does these days are to immigrants of one sort or another. I am making no judgment, simply stating a fact.

Many of the new patients do not speak English so the clinic has to book an interpreter at £70/hour who has to be paid whether or not the patient turns up.

Why's that then? When I was in hospital in Switzerland, I didn't get an interpreter. And not all the staff, even the doctors, spoke English. I didn't speak German then.

Oh and one of these new patients stole a credit and debit card from my wife's handbag last week whilst she was doing a blood test and then went on a shopping spree in Tesco.

Sorry to hear it. But it could just as easily have happened with some chavette of a sink estate.

[TimberWolf]

Could you lot stop breeding please? New people can be made far more economically abroad and, if necessary, imported in vast numbers, so it makes little sense to make yet more new people here. Imported people come fully grown, educated etc, so there would be none of this messing about with child birth, education, etc and could save a fortune.

[Dow Jones]

Facts not fiction...

Seems that only one poster has decided to fight the PC corner and one I would normally expect not to. The facts are as given by some of the previous posters re: burden on the NHS vs NI contributions. If we don't put a stop now, we'll soon find ourselves facing the same costs as in the USA, where if you haven't got company/private insurance, there is no treatment. Conservative or Labour Gov't - makes no difference - will adopt this, in the same way as Labour adopted tuition fees when an ever increasing number of students decided - or rather enticed - to go to University. The system has reached breaking point and it's all down to lack of funds. Like someone said, what is the NI contribution of someone on £ 5 ph = £ 200 pw = £ 10k pa against the huge costs of an operation/childbirth. You can't put pennies or pounds and expect hundreds or thousands, unless you win the lottery. And it seems that for a lot of our foreign UK residents, this is what is. No gain or benefit in being British-born these days.

[M_B]

Seems that only one poster has decided to fight the PC corner and one I would normally expect not to. The facts are as given by some of the previous posters re: burden on the NHS vs NI contributions. If we don't put a stop now, we'll soon find ourselves facing the same costs as in the USA, where if you haven't got company/private insurance, there is no treatment. Conservative or Labour Gov't - makes no difference - will adopt this, in the same way as Labour adopted tuition fees when an ever increasing number of students decided - or rather enticed - to go to University. The system has reached breaking point and it's all down to lack of funds. Like someone said, what is the NI contribution of someone on £ 5 ph = £ 200 pw = £ 10k pa against the huge costs of an operation/childbirth. You can't put pennies or pounds and expect hundreds or thousands, unless you win the lottery. And it seems that for a lot of our foreign UK residents, this is what is. No gain or benefit in being British-born these days.

So are you saying my Italian girlfriend who contributes financially to our economy both directly and indirectly, should not be entitled to free health care when she gives birth ? Will that change when we get married ?

[Fishface]

It costs between $7000 and $11,000 for a vaginal birth at St Vincent's or New York Presbyterian in Manhattan - $5-7k more for a c-section.

Any HMO will get you 80% of this - an individual still has to pay out of their pocket for deductibles/co-pay.

I dont live in the UK and still have to pay Nat Ins - people still think the NHS is 'free'.

The NHS is good - don't knock it.

even in the US the medicaid facilities are positively third world - a nightmare.

Foreign mothers with british fathers - wonder why? there is lots of them.