Look to France

9:43am Wednesday 27th August 2008

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When the NHS was first formed in the 1940s, with the promise of free health care from cradle to grave, we didn’t have an open door policy which enabled people from around the world to come here and get it too.

Also people had a work ethic that told them that if they didn’t work and pay their taxes and their rent, they would go hungry and be homeless.

There are far too many people now in this country who are not contributing to the system. It doesn’t take a genius to see that it cannot go on this way.

As the government is now talking of cutting out dole payments to people who are able to work, why not look at the French system whereby all able bodied people pay half their health insurance and the employer pays the other half.

If they don’t work they don’t get health care – it’s as simple as that.

Obviously, pensioners and disabled people would be exempt. You can see a consultant in France within a week then be admitted to a private ward where, incidentally, they have no MRSA.

As people will say there is a lot of unemployment, there is still a lot of community work to be done, such as cleaning off graffiti and chewing gum from pavements, to name but a few.

The government could employ people to do this as part of a work ethic. It would be better than giving dole money for doing nothing.

Margaret Warman Stalls Farm Road Droitwich Spa