Financing Higher NHS Spending from Increased National Insurance

Abstract

This article uses international comparisons to demonstrate the UK's relatively low spending on health care services and considers why extra money is being raised from National Insurance Contributions rather than from other sources of tax revenue. It outlines various options for measuring the UK-EU health spending gap and finds that they yield substantively different estimates of the size of the spending gap to be filled. It explains why closure of that gap may be aided by enlargement of the EU. It concludes that closure of the spending gap may be as much or more the result of accident than of design.