BMJ  2007;335 (1 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.39413.597465.47

Editor's Choice

The market has failed

Gordon Brown may be having second thoughts about market reforms in the NHS. Last week Nick Timmins described how the government is cutting back its use of the private sector (BMJ 2007;335:1066; doi: 10.1136/bmj.39405.462431.94). Expansion of the private sector is still the official line, but only as long as it provides value for money, Mr Brown told this week's conference of the Confederation of British Industry. Beleaguered as he is on almost every front, if Brown is rethinking healthcare markets he'll find support in this week's BMJ. Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein argue that US health care, the biggest system in the world in which markets have been given full rein, has failed. Specifically, they point to the toxic mix of public funding (through Medicare and Medicaid) and private provision, exactly the mix that Tony Blair envisioned for the UK. Rather than copying the US model, say . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Fitzpatrick, A. P. (2008). We need to be more pragmatic. BMJ 336: 8-9 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

US medicine is not market driven

Britt Daniel
bmj.com, 30 Nov 2007 [Full text]

Healthcare and Markets: We need to be more pragmatic

Adam Paul Fitzpatrick
bmj.com, 1 Dec 2007 [Full text]

Canada also is sliding towards private care layered over a public base.

John Hoey MD
bmj.com, 3 Dec 2007 [Full text]

Equity and markets

Clive D Hadfield
bmj.com, 3 Dec 2007 [Full text]

Public health machinery also works

Om Prakash, et al.
bmj.com, 3 Dec 2007 [Full text]