Is a credit a voucher?
Last week, Alan Milburn asked me to stop being nice about him on my blog. I will meet him halfway. I have just read his speech on healthcare that he gave yesterday in Washington DC. The first half, where he defends Labour’s record, is crap (is that OK Alan?). The second half, I’m afraid, is rather interesting and thought provoking (sorry, Alan).
Milburn makes it clear that his agenda was to turn the NHS from being a monolpoly provider into being “values-based system” - Labour speak for a regulator. Yesterday’s speech shows that Milburn has got, at last, to the point the Tories understood years ago. It is patients, not bureaucrats, who will make the Health Service work, and it is they who should be empowered.
I do not agree with one of his new proposals - electing the heads of Primary Care Trusts directly. You would get some very odd results. But I do agree there should be some local democratic accountability of healthcare by way of local councils.
But his proposal for an NHS Credit for patients is effectively a call for a voucher scheme. It excludes co-payment (it’s therefore not the patient’s passport) but it does not exclude specifically a patient using the Credit to pay for private treatment, assuming it is at the same cost as the NHS tariff.
How Blair and Milburn must wish the Tories had won the 1997 election. Then we might today have the public services they say they now want to create.
Simon said on October 25th, 2006 at 12:36 pm:
Hells Bells, not bloody vouchers again!!! Well, if i’m in need of treatment for any ailment i’m sure as s**t not going to sod about looking for a bloody voucher! I shall be doing what 99.9% of people will be doing- going off to a local a&e or hospital to seek treatment. And don’t mention education vouchers- another dire idea! The only vouchers i want are from debenhams when they have a sales day!Enough already!