Independent health care and the NHS
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Author(s):
- Holmes, Jonathon, author
- Contributor(s):
- King's Fund (London, England), issuing body.
- Publication:
- London : The King's Fund, January 2023
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Health Services Accessibility Private Sector Privatization State Medicine United Kingdom
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Discussion around the role of the independent sector in providing health care often focuses on the ‘privatisation’ of the NHS. Private providers have always played a role in the NHS, and while there was a small increase in NHS expenditure on independent sector providers following the implementation of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, it has flatlined at a lower level since. Although the role of the independent sector in providing NHS services has not increased substantially in recent years, according to some data sources, private spending by individuals on health care--known as ‘out-of-pocket’ spending--has. Spending on health care services is higher in households with the most disposable income. However, for the top decile, household spending on health care services as a proportion of disposable income is roughly equivalent to that seen in the least well-off households. In the five years before the Covid-19 pandemic, compared to households with higher disposable incomes, households with lower disposable incomes have seen a larger increase in the share of their disposable income that is spent on hospital services--from 0.3 per cent in 2015/16 to 0.8 per cent in 2019/20. People’s motivations for self-funding their health care, rather than using the free-at-the-point-of-use NHS, are mixed. Polling data suggests that more people would now consider self-funding as a direct result of long waiting times and difficulties accessing NHS treatment. However, some market analysts have argued that economic conditions, including the rising cost of living and recession, may slow the rate of increase in private spending on health care. The increase in the numbers of people choosing to self-fund health care may have serious implications for inequalities in health and access to services if people with lower disposable incomes are forced to choose between higher costs of health care or longer waits.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (15 pages, 1 unnumbered page))
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918734081006676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918734081006676