12 September 2008
The NHS should combine access to universal health care with insurance-like principles, the think-tank Reform has said.
Its report, Making the NHS the best insurance policy in the world, published on September 9, claimed the UK was lagging behind other countries in providing high-quality health care.
It called on the government to introduce more insurance incentives, create a 'national health protection system' and allow for independent, regulated organisations to provide health services. Individuals would be given a £2,000 per year tax-funded 'premium' to spend on a provider of their choice. This approach would shift the focus to long-term improvements in health, help define individual entitlements to health services and achieve greater value, the report said.
Andrew Haldenby, director of Reform, said the report looked at how to 'import the best ideas from overseas' without losing universal health care.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg took the political initiative by announcing his support for allowing 'top-up' payments in the NHS.
'We cannot continue to deny people the right to top up their care — particularly where they are following their clinician's advice — when the NHS has finite resources and cannot provide everything for everyone,' he said.
Clegg said the LibDems would allow people to pay for drugs not available on the NHS if: the medication was approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence; people paid for any extra costs incurred by taking the drug; and patients were not allowed to jump the queue for care.
Clegg said his party agreed with some of the Reform proposals, adding that the health service 'should be allowed to incentivise or even pay people for making healthy choices'.
But the LibDems would not create health protection providers. They would change the current primary care trust structure, introducing the 'power of the ballot box in health' by having elected members on PCT boards.
PFsep2008
