People who have the means should pay, so we can afford for people who don’t have the means not to need to.
When you’re talking about spending taxpayers’ money (whether that’s on health, social care, education, etc) the marginal benefit of spending it on the neediest will almost always be greater than that of spending it on those who could afford to pay for it themselves. I find it very difficult to justify why millionaires in Britain can get free prescriptions, winter fuel allowances, OAP bus passes, etc, whilst there are other people struggling by with the help of food banks and charities for whom this money would do an awful lot more good.
People who have the means should pay, so we can afford for people who don’t have the means not to need to.
When you’re talking about spending taxpayers’ money (whether that’s on health, social care, education, etc) the marginal benefit of spending it on the neediest will almost always be greater than that of spending it on those who could afford to pay for it themselves. I find it very difficult to justify why millionaires in Britain can get free prescriptions, winter fuel allowances, OAP bus passes, etc, whilst there are other people struggling by with the help of food banks and charities for whom this money would do an awful lot more good.
Means testing is less cost effective in some cases than helping everyone.