Doctors Strike in UK Over Pensions

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Here is the link to coverage:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/bl...-live-coverage

I found this part very interesting:

12.36pm: At Wimbledon Village surgery in south-west London two of the three GPs on duty today are not BMA members - but all three have joined in the action, Denis Campbell reports.

"My colleagues are doing that because their pensions are being affected in the same way as me, even though they're not BMA members," explained Dr Paul Cundy, one of the three partner GPs at the surgery and the only BMA member amongst the trio. "We are all very, very angry about the changes that the government is making. Before the 2008 agreement [the overhaul of NHS pensions under labour] my personal pension contribution was 7% of my salary. After that it went up to 10.5% because we weren't paying our fair share, so doctors willingly opened their wallets to contribute on an appropriate basis. Lansley now wants to put my contributions up to 14.5% from next April. I don't know of any other group anywhere whose pension contributions have been forced to double in five years. This is deeply unfair."

DISCUSS

Originally Posted by nosleep

Here is the link to coverage:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/bl...-live-coverage

I found this part very interesting:

12.36pm: At Wimbledon Village surgery in south-west London two of the three GPs on duty today are not BMA members - but all three have joined in the action, Denis Campbell reports.

"My colleagues are doing that because their pensions are being affected in the same way as me, even though they're not BMA members," explained Dr Paul Cundy, one of the three partner GPs at the surgery and the only BMA member amongst the trio. "We are all very, very angry about the changes that the government is making. Before the 2008 agreement [the overhaul of NHS pensions under labour] my personal pension contribution was 7% of my salary. After that it went up to 10.5% because we weren't paying our fair share, so doctors willingly opened their wallets to contribute on an appropriate basis. Lansley now wants to put my contributions up to 14.5% from next April. I don't know of any other group anywhere whose pension contributions have been forced to double in five years. This is deeply unfair."

DISCUSS

Those jolly ol greedy bastards.
Our US pensions are 15% contribution and they don't hear us Americans complaining...

...wait, we DO get pensions, right???

Originally Posted by Blais

Those jolly ol greedy bastards.
Our US pensions are 15% contribution and they don't hear us Americans complaining...

...wait, we DO get pensions, right???

does SS count as a pension? :P

Wow......ethics anyone?

Ever since I read this story, I have had absolutely no sympathy for British healthcare providers - they are absolutely incompetent.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...-of-water.html

Originally Posted by notbobtrustme

does SS count as a pension? :P

Only if Ponzi schemes count as pensions.

Originally Posted by xf3rn4nd3sx

Only if Ponzi schemes count as pensions.

You just want to throw Grandma off a cliff. Admit it.

Originally Posted by Dave89

You just want to throw Grandma off a cliff. Admit it.

Lol, fortunately Grandma will be ok. It's my generation and the generation after that won't see a cent.

Originally Posted by xf3rn4nd3sx

Only if Ponzi schemes count as pensions.

Social Security is not that much in trouble. Medicare is.

Originally Posted by Lokhtar

Social Security is not that much in trouble. Medicare is.

I'd agree that medicare is in more of a predicament, but the congressional budget office recently predicted that the social security fund has $1 trillion less than expected (than should be in the fund for the expected number of retirees).

Originally Posted by xf3rn4nd3sx

I'd agree that medicare is in more of a predicament, but the congressional budget office recently predicted that the social security fund has $1 trillion less than expected (than should be in the fund for the expected number of retirees).

It's not going to run out of money for DECADES, which is an eternity in economic and political terms, and there are some very simple fixes to making it permanently solvent (a slight increase in SS tax or slight decrease in benefits/higher age of benefits - whichever side of the debate you prefer to be on). It's not that big a deal either way to fix.

Medicare is a much bigger deal because the current retirees are being given benefits worth much much much more than they put in and the costs don't seem to be going down anytime soon.

Originally Posted by Lokhtar

Social Security is not that much in trouble. Medicare is.

if the banking thieves are "too big to fail", then so should be Medicare and any other social program, public schools, you name it. they create money out of thin air. there is no budget crisis. the only crisis is that of total political corruption.

Don't worry, medicare is indeed too big to fail. It's not going anywhere.

Originally Posted by Lokhtar

Don't worry, medicare is indeed too big to fail. It's not going anywhere.

ya but poor people are just a bunch of whiners who buy cell phones so they don't need any handouts, but in the meantime why don't we rig LIBOR down and shuffle a few trillion to the banks.

Originally Posted by startoverat40

ya but poor people are just a bunch of whiners who buy cell phones so they don't need any handouts, but in the meantime why don't we rig LIBOR down and shuffle a few trillion to the banks.

Occupy SDN!

Originally Posted by Dave89

Occupy SDN!

no, let's have Rupert run it.

lol @ these ungrateful bastards they should be paying us to have the privilege of being doctors --Jack Shepherd MD