Would you pay more for the NHS?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2018
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In its 70th year the NHS is in a winter crisis again. Many people working in the NHS argue successive governments have failed to address what is arguably the biggest problem: funding.
David Aaronovitch asks if the public would pay more for the NHS. Is there now a case for a hypothecated tax? Can public support for the NHS withstand a tax rise?
CONTRIBUTORS:
Dan Wellings, Senior Policy Fellow, The King's Fund Anita Charlesworth, Director of Research and Economics at the Health Foundation Sally Gainsbury, Senior Policy Advisor, The Nuffield Trust Sir Julian Le Grand, Professor of Public Policy at the London School of Economics
Producer: Serena Tarling.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:03.6 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronovich. |
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| 0:21.7 | really. And a thanks to those of you who've recently reviewed us, including Xanderol, Don Scott, |
| 0:27.9 | Trofremov-Ongle, Moors, and Patrick Furstad. And do please keep them coming. If you enjoy this, |
| 0:34.6 | you might enjoy other editions of the briefing room, |
| 0:42.5 | but in this edition, I'm getting briefed on whether you'd be willing to pay more to fund the NHS. |
| 0:54.6 | Last April, the briefing room looked at the long-term funding of the NHS in England. |
| 0:56.9 | This is where we ended up. |
| 0:58.3 | We got two choices. |
| 1:02.8 | We could either respond to that desire to spend more money, and that will cost us, |
| 1:05.0 | and we'll have to maybe put up taxes. |
| 1:07.3 | Or we don't respond to that. |
| 1:10.6 | We simply say, well, we'll just live with the money we've got. The calculation for the public is, are we willing to give up on some of our disposable income |
| 1:16.6 | and pay a bit more tax? Or we want to keep our money in our pockets, but we'll get what we pay for. |
| 1:22.6 | That was John Appleby, chief economist at the Nuffield Trust. |
| 1:31.1 | Nine months was enough time to gestate the next crisis. |
| 1:34.7 | This week, the leader of the opposition went at it hammer. Will the Prime Minister assure patients that in 2018, less NHS money intended for patient care |
| 1:44.7 | will be feathering the nests of shareholders in private health company. |
| 1:49.8 | And the Prime Minister responded, Tongs. |
... |
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