The public still firmly believes in the fundamental principles underpinning the NHS but under certain circumstances could support the introduction of charges for some treatments and services, suggests a new Kings Fund and Ipsos MORI report entitled, How should we pay for healthcare in future?
The report follows recent research from The King’s Fund into the funding challenge facing the NHS, which showed that, on current trends, health and social care could consume half of all Government spending in 50 years’ time. Participants strongly supported the principle that access to healthcare should continue to be based on need rather than ability to pay, and rejected means testing as a way of controlling future spending. They were also adamant that the quality of clinical care should not be compromised to reduce costs. Participants were reluctant to consider fundamental changes to the current funding model, even when confronted with the scale of the funding challenge facing the NHS. In discussions about how the funding challenge should be addressed, there was some support for introducing payments for some NHS services and for charging patients in certain circumstances. Participants wanted more information about how the NHS is currently funded and would like to engage in a debate about how it should be paid for in the future. They were also clear that the current system must be shown to be working as efficiently as possible before they would consider changes to funding, and that the Government should tackle tax avoidance before asking people to pay more towards the cost of care.
