Health food for thought

Published: 10 September, 2010

• THE cost of our ageing population is calculated by the IMF to be 335 per cent of GDP, that is almost £200,000 for every British household.

Are we prepared, or able, to fund our health service to this amount?

NHS spending rose from 6.6 per cent of GDP in 2001 to almost 10 per cent in 2010.

To keep our healthcare as fair as possible we must accept a reasonable balance between private and public funding.

Should we continue to view medicine as a public right, to be distributed equally to all citizens or should we think of it in the same way as we do other purchases, such as food?

France, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Sweden and Japan have mixed public and private schemes, such as insurance, means-testing, payment for hospital and doctor visits, which deliver greater customer satisfaction than does the British system.

JENNY WRIGHT, NW5