Think Tanks
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IEA - NHS reforms welcome step
Dr Kristian Niemietz, Editorial Director and Head of Political Economy at the free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs Comments on the Government’s latest NHS reform announcements
“The focus on increased patient choice, including of independent-sector providers, is clearly a positive step, which picks up where the Blair/Brown-era reforms left off around 2008. These choice-based reforms brought real improvements in the 2000s, which can be built upon.
“In terms of healthcare delivery, though, there is still too much micromanagement, top-down control and central planning. The idea that politicians can know what the opening hours of a healthcare facility should be, or how many facilities of this kind or that kind there should be, is ludicrous.
“If the government were serious about reform, they would seek to learn from self-steering health systems where that kind of political meddling is the exception rather than the norm.”
Notes to Editors
- In ‘The Denationalisation of Healthcare’, published in 2024, Dr Kristian Niemietz outlines how the NHS could be adapted into a European style social health insurance system.
- Kristian wrote about these reforms in CapX.
The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.
