Avoiding the issues

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7498.986

BMJ 2005;330:986 (30 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7498.986

News

2005 UK election special

Avoiding the issues

David G Green, director

Civitas: The Institute for the Study of Civil Society

By not addressing the monopolistic nature of the NHS, all threeparties fail to raise the real issues, says David Green

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Comparing manifestos tells us as much about what the three mainparties don't say as what they do. All three main parties agreethat the NHS should continue to be a public sector monopoly.But the NHS is only one way to achieve the ideal shared acrossEurope: that no one should be denied health care because theylack money. A strong case can be made that the social insuranceschemes of Germany, France, and Switzerland have been more successfulthan the NHS system. The poorest people in those countries enjoya higher standard of care than in the United Kingdom, not havingto face rationing and restricted choice.

However, the differences in policy between the three partiesare not trivial. All three parties accept that the private sectorshould supply services to the NHS. The Tories are the keenestand want private providers to have a "right to supply" . . . [Full text of this article]

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