Donald Trump.

Actually, that's not quite true, but I wish it was. Nearly all NHS car parks in England, [Scotland and Wales are mostly free] charge around £4 an hour and I think it's very rare that a visitor/patient will be there less than an hour so they'll probably pay around £8 for the visit. But,again, most English NHS car parks are run by Private Companies, not the NHS, who the NHS have hired. Some of those companies, aside for charging the the services they provide, also take from 10% to 100% of the revenue from that particular car park depending on the arrangement they have with the Hospital Trust.
I'm not against car park charges, although I do believe that charging Hospital Staff for parking at work is perverse and idiotic, after all why don't we charge all workers for the seats they might sit on at work. I certainly wouldn't work for anyone who wanted to charge me for going to work.
If the practice of charging visitors/patients is to continue then why not use NHS Managers [take a walk down a Hospital Corridor and there are a great many with about a dozen words in their title] in the Financial and Personnel Departments to manage/run the car parks. If that were done, the charges could be halved, Hospital Staff would not be "taxed" for going to work by their employer, and the Hospital Trust would get all the income
from the car parks.

 

Fortunately I rarely have to go to the hospital. When I do it's usually to visit people and I park half a mile away in Sainsbury's. They have three hours free parking but I usually do my shopping at the same time.

I know some people who used to have to go to the hospital fairly often. They can't afford a taxi and they can't afford the car parking fees. So they don't go when they should. One of them goes for every other appointment and gets told off for not going often enough!

 

Well, with yet another mass shooting at U Tube to add to the already 30 that have taken place in the USA so far this year, it certainly underlines the fact that, with already over 3, 649 people killed in shootings, [156 of those being children], the American Politicians/Authorities haven't got a clue how to deal with their own dire situation never mind any other countries.
I suppose, carrying a gun around, looking with suspicion at everyone walking the streets, letting people carry converted semi-automatic weapons and, because of all that, living in fear, is a way of accepted Life in certain countries........ but it's not for me.

 

... As this is a thread about the great orange one, exactly how does healthcare in the US work? I saw the Obamacare as a positive move and a step toward providing healthcare to those less fortunate but Trump is dead set against it, maybe as it costs the government cash? IS all healthcare in the US traditionally on an insurance basis?

 

And that's the great difference between the UK and the USA, Nigel. Our major problems are knife crimes whereas in the US, it's people carrying sidearms, semi-automatic weapons on the streets as second nature.

 

Anyone seen The Untouchables...?

 

Nothing is civilised about killing, pete, which is why the Earth is still waiting for the intelligent being to evolve. But you can kill many more people with a semi-automatic weapon than you can will a knife.

 

Been there 4 times, and have friends and relations living over there, pete, but every trip just confirmed my thinking that their Politicians put the Dollar first and people 5th.

 

The point was not about the finality of Death, pete, but the ability to kill more people with a gun rather than a knife. But, as you say, Dead is Dead. We may not be an endangered species, at the moment, from natural events but we seem to be doing a good job of trying to wipe out races.