Reforming the National Health Service into a social health insurance (SHI) system could boost UK health outcomes to European levels according to a new report out this morning
The research by the Institute of Economic Affairs, the NHS should be replaced by a European-style social health insurance (SHI) system to boost the UK’s lagging healthcare outcomes.
This comes just a week after a report by Lord Darzi finds that the NHS is in “critical condition”, and Prime Minister’s claim that the health service must “reform or die”.
SHI systems are market based, with private insurers and providers competing for customers. However, markets are regulated to ensure access to healthcare for those with pre-existing medical conditions and governments support those who cannot pay for insurance on a means-tested basis.
A transition to an SHI system could improve healthcare outcomes. Introducing competitive pressures and expanding patient choice, as is the case in many European countries, could improve standards and save lives.
Dr Kristian Niemietz, report author and IEA Editorial Director, said:
“Until not even three years ago, the NHS used to be Britain’s most revered sacred cow, and criticising it was the ultimate social taboo. Now, three out of ten people say openly that some of the continental European health systems deliver better-quality healthcare than the NHS does. I have rarely seen a social taboo lose its bite so quickly: there has been a dramatic shift in what people feel they are allowed to say in public.
“But we have now reached a stage where pointing out that the grass is greener on the other side is no longer good enough. What I try to show in this paper is how we can grow some of that greener variety of grass here, on domestic soil.”
