It's amazing that our doctors were ever able to prescribe anything before the commercials... :o) How did we ever manage? :o) First there were no drug commercials, now they must take up 90% of the ad time on tv...



>How prevalent is pharmaceutical advertising over there? Was wondering if its less considering the UK's universal system (with a more targeted ad approach). Its wall to wall over here. The more TV i watch, the more ailments i learn i have.
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>>>Terry, sorry to hear about your parents. Sounds like they've had a tough go of it lately.
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>>Thanks Chris. I suppose with living longer nowadays it's to be expected that an ageing popn. will require more care, at the time of life when they were once expected to be dead already.
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>>>Is the UK system a universal system?
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>>Sure is, whether you can pay the Nat. Health Insurance (NHI) or not. This is paid as a sort of tax. This covers you for unemployment benefits too.
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>>>How high are the income tax rates in the UK?
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>>Well income tax, per se, is about 22% (not sure of the rate anymore) on earning c. £5k - £35, then 40% on the portion above £35 K. Add on NHI and you can expect to say bye-bye to c. 1/3 your salary. Now, it's a bone of contention that not all that NHI goes to the NHS and social security, but does just the general coffers fill (to put it Shakespeareanly)
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>>>and where does the infamous UK gasoline tax monies go?
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>>Well it goes on road infrastructure and improvements of course! .. Yeah right! God knows. See Shakespeare again.
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>>Mind you, I've just got back from vacation in France, where petrol is c. EURO 1.24 (supermarket price) - 1.44 per litre, which is c. £0.83 - £0.965. Coming home I was delighted to find that the price has dropped c. 4p to around 93.9p per litre here. So our prices would seem to be about the same as the French now.
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