By Richard Johnstone | 31 March 2014
Five more years of austerity over the next Parliament would risk bankrupting the NHS, Reform has warned.
The think-tank also said some tax rises and charges were needed to pay for integration with social care provision.
Reform’s analysis, conducted by former Labour health minister Lord Warner, said extra charges, including a £120 annual NHS membership fee, paid as £10 every month, were needed to provide revenue to support the service.
The NHS has been protected from cuts in the government’s deficit reduction drive, but has been tasked with making £20bn in efficiency savings.
Warner said the additional funding raise through new fees and charges should be used to better integrate health and social care into a National Health and Care Service, replacing the current ‘out-of-date and unaffordable’ system.
He added: ‘The NHS has to change radically and fast over a single parliament with flatlined funding. It should have no more handouts at the expense of other public services.
‘It faces a hard slog of doing more with less and a tough conversation with the public about how we change services and accept new ways of funding the NHS.’
Funding from general taxation for health and care should be frozen in real terms, but other taxes should rise to pay for the integrated system.
Duties on alcohol, cigarettes, sugary foods, betting and gambling should all go up and be earmarked for the NHS, while the number of people paying inheritance tax should rise to fund care provision.
Responding to the report, Labour's shadow health minister Jamie Reed said the creation of a monthly charge for the NHS was not something Labour would consider.
'We believe in an NHS free at the point of use, and a Labour government will repeal David Cameron’s NHS changes that put private profit before patient care.
'The truth is that after wasting £3bn on a damaging reorganisation and causing a crisis in A&E, it is David Cameron you can’t trust with the NHS.'
