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THE OVERTAKING OF THE POLITICIANS: A LIBERTARIAN REFLECTS ON THE STATE OF THE BRITISH HEALTHCARE DEBATE
Author(s) -
Micklethwait Brian
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
economic affairs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.24
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1468-0270
pISSN - 0265-0665
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0270.2008.00876.x
Subject(s) - overtaking , health care , state (computer science) , socialism , healthcare service , political science , service (business) , political economy , law and economics , public administration , public relations , economics , business , law , politics , engineering , marketing , computer science , communism , civil engineering , algorithm
This paper examines the evolution of the healthcare debate in Britain since the publication of the author's groundbreaking 1991 paper, ‘How and How Not to Demonopolise Medicine’. While politicians remain cautious about publicly endorsing radical change, socialism's demonstrable failure to deliver results has changed the intellectual climate such that there is growing support for applying free‐market ideas to the sector. The easy availability of information about competing treatments and service providers on the internet will also undermine the rationale for moribund statist systems like the National Health Service.