NHS must be 'abolished' and replaced with 'social health insurance system'

NHS should be replaced with a social insurance system like in the Netherlands which could cut waiting times and provide a more robust service, a report has claimed.

The NHS must be "abolished" to save lives, a leading thinktank has warned. The NHS should be replaced with a social insurance system like in the Netherlands which could cut waiting times and provide a more robust service, a report has claimed.

Experts say the NHS needs urgent reforms or it will not be able to continue. Jeremt Hunt, the shadow chancellor and former health secretary. said there were “a range of bold and pragmatic proposals that ought to be carefully considered by the Government”.

“It is without doubt that effective management is a requirement if we want to deliver a high-performing and more productive NHS – something which was clear to me throughout my tenure as health secretary,” he said.

The report by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) points to a “huge shift in public opinion” with people increasingly likely to say the NHS is worse than healthcare systems in other European countries. The report, called The Denationalisation of Healthcare, calls for urgent reforms.

Under the reforms, all health insurers would be obliged to provide a minimum package, which would automatically be given to all citizens as a default option, while taxes were replaced with health insurance contributions. Dr Kristian Niemietz, the report author and IEA editorial director, said: “Until not even three years ago, the NHS used to be Britain’s most revered sacred cow, and criticising it was the ultimate social taboo.

“Now, three out of ten people say openly that some of the continental European health systems deliver better-quality healthcare than the NHS does. I have rarely seen a social taboo lose its bite so quickly: there has been a dramatic shift in what people feel they are allowed to say in public.”

Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “Switching to a social health insurance or other alternative funding model for the NHS is a misguided argument that many independent think tanks have concluded will make no difference to health outcomes.

“If anything, it’s a distraction when what really matters is the level of investment rather than the model of funding.” In response to the Policy Exchange report, an NHS spokesman, said: “As Lord Darzi has said, a reorganisation of NHS England is neither necessary nor desirable, and it was a top-down reorganisation in 2012 – similar to what Policy Exchange is recommending today – that Lord Darzi found was a calamity without international precedent.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “The NHS needs fundamental reform, but as the Secretary of State has repeatedly said, we remain committed to providing a public service, free at the point of use.”