Almost every contribution I make in the House is designed to try to help the Government and often to try to get better value for money for taxpayers.
If we were under any illusions about how important and critical the situation is in relation to health care, we should bear in mind that yesterday, in response to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Pendle (Andrew Stephenson) about the NHS White Paper, the Prime Minister said that"““when we look at the NHS, we know that there are expensive drugs coming down the track, expensive treatments and an ageing population, and more children born with disabilities and living for longer. There are cost pressures on our NHS that mean that even small real-terms increases will be an heroic thing to achieve.””—[Official Report, 14 July 2010; Vol. 513, c. 950.]"
My hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) is making exactly the same point. I am trying to tease out from my hon. Friend the Exchequer Secretary whether it is the Government's policy to try to encourage people to take responsibility for their own health care, if they can so do. This is not the subject of an amendment, but similarly, if people can afford to educate their children in the independent sector, should they not be encouraged so to do?
I am concerned that, in this country, we cannot afford to fund all our health care needs out of taxation. If we look at those countries that have better health care systems that are also better funded collectively than ours, we see that many of them—I am thinking particularly of Australia—are in countries where a high proportion of the money going into personal health care comes from individuals, rather than taxpayers. If we want more expenditure on health, why do we not incentivise people to take on more responsibility themselves?
It might be said, ““Well, these are the services that are available, and people shouldn't be encouraged to buy their way out of the queue,”” but a situation is rapidly developing where what are described as low-priority health services are affected. For example, the local primary care trust in my area has refused to fund an operation—I think that it is called a grommets operation—for two young children who have difficulties with their learning as a result of their ear condition. The primary care trust has refused to fund those operations on the grounds that they constitute low-level care. Indeed, I met somebody during the general election who, according to the clinical advice that he had received, needed a cataract operation at the Royal Bournemouth hospital. However, that operation was not being funded, because the cataracts were not sufficiently severe.
What is happening now is that the public availability of health care that is funded by the taxpayer is being reduced. An increasing number of people may wish to insure themselves against the possibility that they might need access to such health care in the independent sector. Indeed, one might also mention physiotherapy. Any number of people who suffer sports injuries then seek to get physiotherapy on the NHS, but they find that if they can get it at all, the wait is likely to be so long that the benefit will be significantly less.
A large number of individuals in this country insure themselves with personal health insurance. If the Government think that that is a good and responsible thing to do—it is one way in which people choose to spend their money, perhaps instead of spending it on expensive holidays abroad or whatever else—we can perhaps hear about that today. However, if the Government's purpose is to encourage people to supplement the health care that is available from the state, why are we proposing to increase the insurance tax on the premiums that they pay?
One might also talk about what happens in dentistry. It is almost impossible now to access free dentistry on the NHS. Indeed, I understand from the British Dental Association that, in terms of value, about half the dentistry in this country is practised in the private sector, and a lot of that is funded through insurance. If we want a nation that prides itself on having about the worst dental care of anywhere in the world, we are heading in the right direction. I am sorry that my hon. Friend the Member for Mole Valley (Sir Paul Beresford) is not here to supplement my points about that, but there is an increasing crisis in dentistry in this country, because of a lack of resources that are funded by the taxpayer. In moving the amendment, I am not asking that those taxpayer resources should be greater; rather, I am trying to ensure that proper incentives are in place to encourage people to take responsibility for such insurance themselves.
Finance Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Christopher Chope
(Conservative)
in the House of Commons on Thursday, 15 July 2010.
It occurred during Debate on bills
and
Committee of the Whole House (HC) on Finance Bill.
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