The NHS is at a critical point in its history and must find ways to meet both increased patient expectations and the demand for more choice in health care. In this speech, Professor Alain Enthoven argues that managed market competition is the best and possibly only way to achieve this both in the UK and the US.
In this speech given by Professor Alain Enthoven at The Fourth European Conference on Health Economics in Paris on July 10th, 2002, an interesting comparison is made between the ‘internal market’ years of the NHS and the American healthcare industry. Professor Enthoven, who has worked on both countries' health care systems, argues the case for targeted and managed market reform as being the way forward in creating efficient healthcare delivery systems.
Professor Enthoven describes the creation of a market in health care as "a particularly complex undertaking" if it is to drive improvement, and describes the conditions that must be in place before a successful market can be created.