This paper takes an international perspective in order to assess economic and financial considerations in UK health for the future and addresses the question of whether the NHS is financially sustainable in its current form. Part of the Policy futures for UK health - Pathfinder Technical Series.
The National Health Service (NHS) has not changed its funding arrangements since it was established in 1948.
Panos Kanavos draws attention to factors that may change this tradition. Factors include the internationalisation of health and the development of health and health care as a commodity, rising pharmaceutical expenditure, pressures on expenditure that have led to the exclusion or restriction of some services from the NHS, and demographic projections that show a smaller working population supporting an ever-larger dependent population.
The paper raises questions that will need to be addressed in the financing of health care. For example, how should policy use tools such as evidence-based medicine and economic analysis in its decision making? How will long-term care be financed in the future? When and on what basis should alternative systems of finance be considered and evaluated?
Panos Kanavos takes a suitably international perspective in order to assess economic and financial considerations in UK health for the future and addresses the question of whether the NHS is financially sustainable in its current form.