It looks like Reform would go further than the Conservative Party and Labour Party in dismantling the NHS. At Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs), Nigel Farage and Richard Tice nodded and smiled on camera at the idea Reform would end the NHS as free at the point of use.
PMQs: “An insurance-based system” for the NHS
In parliament, Labour MP John Slinger said:
The honourable member for Clacton says that his party is, and I quote, ‘open to anything’ when it comes to changing our NHS to… an insurance based system. Can my right honourable friend confirm that under a Labour government the NHS will be there for everyone, when they need it – not having to worry about the bill
Keir Starmer responded:
The NHS is the lifeblood of our country and that’s why we invested £25bn at the budget… and we’re making it fit for the future through our plan for change. What a contrast with Reform who’s leader has said that those who can afford to pay should pay for our healthcare. Under Labour, the NHS will always be free at the point of use for anyone who needs it
Shockingly, Farage and Tice nodded in parliament at Starmer’s comment:
Richard Tice and Nigel Farage caught NODDING at #PMQs when Keir Starmer says Reform UK would replace the principle of the NHS being free at the point of use, for everyone, with an insurance-based model.
Selling off our country’s greatest achievement. pic.twitter.com/zfcRBz1pap
— Best for Britain (@BestForBritain) February 5, 2025
Farage would be worse. But Starmer has in fact announced a 20% increase in NHS private provision.
While that doesn’t end the NHS as free at the point of use, it does enable more private companies to leech profits from healthcare budgets. The mission creep of this style of NHS dismantling has been going on throughout successive right-wing Labour and Conservative governments. But it looks like Reform would simply tear up the NHS in an even more fundamental way, in which the public may well more readily notice.
On top of that, Labour later walked back the headline figure in its October budget of a £22.6bn increase in NHS day-to-day spending. Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a 5% cut to each governmental department. That leaves the spending increase at £7.6bn.
It’s only the latest sign of private healthcare from Reform
Away from PMQs, in January Farage told LBC that he was “open to anything” when it comes to an insurance based model of healthcare. This follows his previous comments at a UKIP (his former party) meeting in East Sussex, where he said:
I think we’re going to have to think about healthcare very, very differently. I think we are going to have to move to an insurance-based system of healthcare.
Frankly, I would feel more comfortable that my money would return value if I was able to do that through the market place of an insurance company than just us trustingly giving £100bn a year to central government and expecting them to organise the healthcare service from cradle to grave for us.
His comments on ‘return value’ are an insult to hard-working NHS staff. They are also a denial of the fact that there is, as a matter of fact, a best way of practicing healthcare that can be established universally and constantly refined through research and development.
The NHS shares anonymous data throughout the healthcare system, so each hospital can practice the best care. It doesn’t require a market system and ‘competition’ between private healthcare providers to deliver the highest standard of care. In fact, a private system could well deliver fractured care where knowledge and standards are also privatised and not shared between competing companies. And if that healthcare knowledge is shared, then the companies aren’t competing and Farage’s point is lost.
Another ridiculous claim Farage is making here is that the government themselves organise healthcare. No, professionals are paid to do so in the public sector, just like in the private sector. The difference is, it’s cheaper public. It’s also ethical that people shouldn’t have to pay when they already have the misfortune of illness or injury.
In Reform’s 2024 manifesto, the party pledged to boost the private healthcare sector through offering 20% tax relief to firms. They claim that reduces pressure on the NHS, but again the opposite is the case. The private healthcare sector takes resources and staff away from the NHS.
At PMQs, Farage and Tice’s true views on healthcare were on display. Hopefully people will realise the country’s greatest achievement is under ever greater threat before the next election.
Featured image via House of Commons
