Britons now have the worst access to healthcare in Europe, and it shows
"For the past few months, a fierce debate has been raging over the question of what exactly is behind the sudden, sharp exodus of older British workers into economic inactivity. Is it driven by rapidly worsening health or, more benignly, a flow of early retirements? There are two further, key questions here.
First, where does one draw the line in determining whether ill health played a role in someone’s decision to leave the labour force? And second, is it preferable to have a trend of worsening health that drives people out of the workforce, or one that spares the working but condemns the already workless to stay put?
One thing, though, is clear: the UK is now roughly three years into a steady march of chronic illness that is scything through the most vulnerable and marginalised in our population.
Beginning shortly before the pandemic but then accelerating, there has been a steep climb in rates of chronic ill health among the long-term workless. Today there are half a million more working-age people in the UK with impairing health conditions than if pre-pandemic trends had continued, and 90 per cent of them are people who have not worked in several years."
More at link - access numbers may be limited.
"For the past few months, a fierce debate has been raging over the question of what exactly is behind the sudden, sharp exodus of older British workers into economic inactivity. Is it driven by rapidly worsening health or, more benignly, a flow of early retirements? There are two further, key questions here.
First, where does one draw the line in determining whether ill health played a role in someone’s decision to leave the labour force? And second, is it preferable to have a trend of worsening health that drives people out of the workforce, or one that spares the working but condemns the already workless to stay put?
One thing, though, is clear: the UK is now roughly three years into a steady march of chronic illness that is scything through the most vulnerable and marginalised in our population.
Beginning shortly before the pandemic but then accelerating, there has been a steep climb in rates of chronic ill health among the long-term workless. Today there are half a million more working-age people in the UK with impairing health conditions than if pre-pandemic trends had continued, and 90 per cent of them are people who have not worked in several years."
More at link - access numbers may be limited.