Tax those over 80 who are going to increasingly burden the system with their insistence on living for another 30 years and move them into compounds to free up some housing.

I recognise the administration would demand input and appeal processes but the way data collection is going we may well already have enough on record. The only problem is writing a programme to retrieve and process it. Self-certification could be used to cancel it, flagged up on the system and double-checked each time the person involved interacts with the NHS. The idea is to encourage an understanding that self-inflicted bad health is unnecessary and creates costs that can be avoided.

I am not suggesting anyone be denied treatment, only that they be billed for it via increased NI, which ceases on retirement anyway. You think it's silly! It's certainly unusual. Whether such an idea will ever be proposed we will have to wait and see.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

When some seriously think everyone over eighty are a burden on the working and ought to be euthanised, this isn't funny.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

In any case, whatever approach was taken during this pandemic, it was going to be a massively crap outcome, because it was a significant society disruptor. With whatever course of action was taken where was going to be told you so types on various points from all over the political spectrum. Certainly, people have reason to be angry on various fronts, especially young people I;d say, and those with family members in homes, but most of the discussions taking place now are academic as we're at the point of picking up the pieces.

Edited by footythoughts (15 May 2023 1.07am)

I fully recognise my suggestions are not likely to command much support and are put forward with my tongue firmly in my cheek. Much though I would like to see it happen, I don't think it will.

They are an attempt to get the fact that doing anything deliberately that costs the NHS more than is necessary ought to be paid for by the individuals concerned. That's the way insurance works. Higher risks, higher premiums.

If we as a society decide not to do that then we need to make those who benefit are fully aware of the generosity shown to them by the rest of us. At the moment they seem to think it's their right to behave selfishly, without consequences. That mindset needs to change. At the moment we rely only on education to persuade but it's not enough. We need to make people feel ashamed of themselves and offered pathways to remove that shame. Telling what the costs are is part of that.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

I fail to see any logic there. I am not talking about taxing anyone. I am talking about the cost of insurance, which is assessed on risk.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.