Health Vouchers
The Times: PATIENTS with chronic conditions would be given individual budgets worth thousands of pounds to manage their own care, under plans to be put to Tony Blair’s new public services policy group.
In an extension of plans to widen patient choice, people with long-term needs, including palliative care, would receive NHS credit, equivalent to the cost of services provided, conventionally, by the health service. For a diabetic, for example, the sum would be about £2,000 per year.
Patients with such conditions would have a choice between a package of care from the NHS or credit that they could control directly. They could spend some of the money privately if they wished, provided they stayed within the budget.
Now extend that to all patients, and then education and if you make that Labour policy I will be out on the streets waving a red banner saying "Vote Labour" and singing L'Internationale...