Some recent stats that I found out the other day from the Department of Health/Government suggest that currently, in the adult population in England, about 25% of people are 'happy' to pay for private healthcare in dentistry.
There is about another 34% of people who will grudgingly accept that payment has to be made.
They're not the same as the 25% who are unwilling participants, but they are still participants.
And then below that, there's 41% who won't or can't pay for it in the current situation that we have.
That makes 75% of people who don't want to pay for healthcare one way or another either because they simply can't or, because they won't, or because they grudge it.
And so, you can look at that and think that it's an insurmountable barrier, or you could flip it around and go, oh my God, there's 25% of people who are willing to pay, and that 25% makes up what 15 million people or more.
That's probably big enough for anyone to work a business in; that's probably a market that's large enough.
That does not detract from the fact that 75% of the population want or will have to access care that is funded through the state.
I think the 34% of people who don't want to but unwillingly do will have to become willing participants.
It seems so clear to everybody that what we need to do is provide a well-funded, well-structured system to provide an appropriate level of care delivered by appropriately trained people (not necessarily dentists) to provide healthcare to the group of people who need it most.
For everyone else, I think the path is clear.
Once you've figured that out, you can plan what things are going to look like in 2030 or 2040 because it won't look like today.
Blog Post Number - 3909
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