The only time you even consider thinking about money is for prescriptions and dental treatment and those are fixed price and subsidised and many exemption exist

The only time you even consider thinking about money is for prescriptions and dental treatment and those are fixed price and subsidised and many exemption exist. A trip to A&E never involves money. The only thing you might get after the event is follow up appointments. A very quick run down on how we pay for all this: All employees (its a little more complicated for the self employed) have tax deducted at source, called Pay As You Earn (PAYE). There are two components: Income Tax - banded according to income and National Insurance (NI) - also banded. The NI contribution is generally to cover the NHS and Social Security, State Pension etc. Class One NI rates: https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/how-much-you-pay https://www.gov.uk/national-insurance/how-much-you-pay so 12% up to £45,000 gross salary and 2% above that. Most people in the UK do not need to worry about filling in a tax return.