News from the New Party

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Paying for health care

As a result of new contracts, General Practitioners are now receiving average salaries in excess of £100,000 a year, with the average of £106,000 approximately 30% higher than in 2004-2005. The increase is so marked that Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, has expressed regret that salaries were not capped to prevent such large pay rises.

The cause of the rise has been that government has underestimated GPs ability to meet NHS targets. As GP pay is effectively performance related, GPs unexpectedly high performance has resulted in a pay bonanza for family doctors. News of our doctors' good fortune will be met with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it might be thought that to pay an average family doctor rather more than a Cabinet minister might be excessive. On the other hand, no doubt most people would prefer that NHS doctors were paid excessively rather than not have any NHS doctors to be paid at all. Anyone who doubts this might like to ponder the situation of the NHS dentist, now on the endangered species list along with the giant panda and the producers of Celebrity Big Brother.

Why is it that we can manage to pay GPs well enough to keep them in the NHS, but we can't do the same with dentists? The answer may have something to do with the fact that the NHS does not run on sensible market principles most of the time. Convoluted NHS contracts combined with a bewildering array of targets hardly makes administration easier.

There has to be a better way. However wedded the British people are to the concept of a monolithic, nationalised health service, we could all receive better health care without the government getting in the way. New Party proposals would give each of us a health insurance policy purchased via a Personal Equity Trust (PET). This insurance would be available to each PET holder, regardless of their state of health, and all treatment would be paid for by this insurance rather than directly by government (with the exception of Accident and Emergency and Maternity services, which for practical reasons would remain under government control). Similarly all health care centres, hospitals and providers would be able to operate independently (subject to meeting minimum standards), and would be responsible for the employment (and pay) of all staff. Free health care would still be available to all, but with the stranglehold of government bureaucracy removed, to the benefit of patients and health care professionals alike.

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Paying for health care