The block grant is decided by public service spending in England. England is currently outsourcing NHS contracts to private companies. There is a difference between using private companies to get waiting lists down and letting them run the actual service, which is what they are doing. The UK government is currently covering the cost of this. These companies are charging more than what it would cost for the NHS to do these services. They are interested in profit after all. Thats why health spending south of the border is currently going up. Now comes the real question. How long (given the planned austerity that both Tories and New Labour are committed to) is the UK government going to cover these costs? It wont be very long. Now are these private companies going to provide these services free? Or are they going to want to see a profit in it? Smart money is on the private interests are going to want a return on investment. So where do they get that from? If the UK government isnt going to pay it, then the only other place to get it is from those that use the service. Which will bring charges into the health service. While the UK government cant force privatisation into Scotlands health service just now, they can remove this devolved administrative power if and when they like. Dont believe me, heres Better Together member Willie Rennie explain it youtube/watch?v=wmx-KBTs-Ks Now even if they dont disolve Holyrood or remove powers from it, the reduction (which would be severe) in Englands public spending would have a devastating effect on Scotlands block grant. For every £10 slashed from Englands budget, Scotlands is slashed by £1. Englands NHS bill is roughly £100 -£120 Bn, so if that is removed then £10-£12 Bn is wiped from Scotlands block grant £12 Bn is the annual cost of running Scotlands health service. Protect the NHS Vote Yes
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 16:59:55 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015