Private v Public Health Care

I have strong ethical reasons for not wanting to pay privately for health care;-

• Health, well being & life should not be commodities to be bought & sold. (Nor should utilities & public services generally in my view.) 
• If healthcare is a fundamental right, access to it should be based strictly on medical need, not on an individual's wealth or ability to pay.
• A public system, where the wealthy use the same system as everyone else, ensures a vested interest in making that system well funded, efficient & high quality. It encourages social cohesion.
• Private healthcare means private clinics. Private clinics lure doctors, nurses & resources away from the public system, worsening the quality of care available to the less fortunate. (Just look at America if you don't believe that).
• To my mind it is morally wrong to profit from human suffering, illness & vulnerability.
• There is evidence to show that private healthcare can lead to unnecessary, expensive tests or procedures in order to increase revenue. The focus should simply be on patient health.
• Jumping the queue undermines equality because the wealthy can bypass the problems experience by the "public".

In order to be even handed the counter arguments are that;- 

• People should have the freedom to spend their legally acquired resources as they see fit. 
• Choosing private care reduces the burden on publicly funded systems like the NHS.
• Denying private care out of a strict desire for equality can result in what philosophers call "levelling down".
• Individuals have a moral obligation to protect their own health and the well-being of their families.

Each of us has to examine our own conscience to decide on which side of the argument we stand.

I have now experienced 2 separate, but similar, unacceptable delays in getting appropriate healthcare from the NHS. Last year I tore a tendon in my right hand. I am right handed & it was excruciatingly painful. I couldn't touch it or move it. By the time the "urgent" appointment with the "Hand Clinic" came through, months later, the hand had healed itself, with the help of my Osteopath.

At the moment I have been waiting for over 6 months for bilateral, ultrasound guided, steroid, injections in my hips for Trochanteric Bursitis. This time I'm not so lucky, (despite the best efforts of my osteopath). I have deteriorated. A lot. It isn't just my hips that are affected now, my knees, ankles, back & neck are also worse. I am now concerned that by the time I get treatment - the wait is between 6-8 months, I will not recover the mobility I had.

But I doubt that I am a worst case scenario. There will be people in much worse circumstances than me. The NHS is not functioning appropriately, despite the best efforts of the people who work there. I imagine that they are unhappy at the state of affairs they work in & the choices they have to make. They are professionals who want to alleviate suffering & heal. 

At the moment they are failing too many people & don't have the resources, human, medical, or financial to do that.