Repeat prescription? The NHS and four decades of privatisation paranoia

Kristian Niemietz

No 108, IEA Discussion Papers from Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)

Abstract: In 1980, an article in The Times predicted that over the next five years, the National Health Service (NHS) would be privatised step by step, and the UK would drift towards an American-type healthcare system. This obviously did not happen. But that has not stopped people from repeatedly making the same prediction ever since. Conspiracy theories about 'secret plans' to dismantle and privatise the NHS are a fixed feature of British politics. The recurring moral panics around the NHS are not just a harmless eccentricity. They have a huge opportunity cost: the crowding out of any sensible discussion of health reform.

Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:ieadps:314008

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