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... mentioned poverty brings ill health with heart disease, cancers and recently diabetes which drains money from the NHS. The aging population also brings higher costs to the health service, as more elderly people will require care with less people to pay for it. Other costs to the health sector are the costs incurred with drugs in administering and research. As more people use the NHS the more drugs must be paid for. The cost of drugs can vary from a few pence per tablet to tens of thousands per tablet.
As more complicated therapies and equipment, such as scanners, are used these drive up costs. Staff costs are the biggest drain on resources for the health sector and will increase, as more people need services. This problem of cost is compacted by the fact that there will not be enough younger people to pay for the ever-increasing costs of the NHS. This has lead to changes to the health service over the years with the most radical coming in the 1980 s.
The 1980 s saw Britains first women Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, head of the Conservative government. The Conservatives were the first party to reform the welfare state since it was set up in the forties. The liberal government in the early 1900 s had set up the pathway for the welfare state incorporating their ideologies of free care for all and their vision of a poverty free nation. The Conservatives ideologies were very different and were know as right wing. Conservatives believed in market forces and capitalism. They believed that the state should not intervene in business and that people were responsible for themselves.
Privatisation and de-industrialisation came about which resulted in high unemployment and increased poverty, which was a drain on resources. This led Thatchers government to consider privatisation of the NHS. This was considered too big a step so the free market was introduced. The Conservatives believed that only people whom really deserved help, disabled and long-term sick should get free care and everyone else should pay for care. This resulted in the setting up of hospital trusts and private medicine.
This was an attempt at reducing the NHS costs paid for by taxation. In 1989 a white paper Working for Patients was introduced and changed the funding structure of the NHS. It still upheld the Liberal ideal logy in providing mostly free services at point of delivery with universal care still funded through general taxation. It introduced competition and market forces. The market force includes having service providers and buyers.
G. P. s, insurance companies and health boards were the buyers, i. e.
they purchased services for their patients. Hospitals and clinics are the providers of services and compete against each other for custom. This was supposed to encourage hospitals to raise their standards of care in order to attract business. Contracts would be drawn up between the buyers and providers and the money (or bill) would follow the patient around from service to service. G. P.
s were encouraged to become fund holding i. e. take control of their own budgets. This allowed G. P.
s to say how their money was spent and gave freedom to upgrade and add services to their practices. Hospitals were allowed to become Trusts this meant it had opted out of the system and could now own its own assets and set its own pay and staff levels. In other words hospital trusts were a business just like any other. The idea was that this would improve care delivery tot the patients as hospitals that were poor would fall to the wayside and hospitals that delivered good care and services would flourish.
The white paper also outlines specific measures to improve patient care. These were pleasant waiting areas, easier complaints system, individual appointments and clearer information for patients. The conservatives hoped that by introducing a health service that was patient controlled and had more control of its finances would improve efficiency, productivity and accountability as well as provide better services for the nation. These policies allowed people to choose their care and allowed a new industry to appear. Private medical insurance popped up everywhere and grew from 4 % to 25 % of the population in the space of a year. There are three main providers Bupa, PPP and Norwich Union This system has been accused of bring a two-tier health system to this country in which the rich can then jump waiting lists.
The idea is that a person insures himself or herself against accident, injury or illness. They pay monthly premiums and will in return receive prompt treatment and monetary payment for loss of work. This of course is only available to people with a substantial income and personal insurance is the smallest part of this business. Companies on the other hand are the biggest users of private medical insurance. It makes sense for companies as insurance can be offered as a perk of the job justifying a poorer wage. Also it pays to have your employees back to work as quickly as possible.
The insurance companies will also help talk to the many different sectors that provide care freeing up more time. This is why companies have embraced private medical insurance. Many different sectors are involved in the provision of care. The state sector i. e.
hospitals, G. P. s, social workers and residential care provide care to all and are funded by the state. The private sector i. e. private hospitals/ residential and nursing homes provide care to those that can afford to pay for it or are insured.
Voluntary agencies such as Age concern or W. R. V. S depend on charity to exist and provide access to transport, services and equipment to name a few. Family, friends and neighbors also provide care, this is known as the informal sector. This is dependant on the person being close to family who are in a position to help.
The state sector carries the bulk of health care provision backed up with the voluntary agencies. The private sector handles a smaller proportion of the care provision and sometimes relies on the state to plug gaps in their services. This mish-mash of care providers is known as the mixed economy of care and has risen from the polices adopted by the conservatives and legislated with the working for patients paper in 1992. Today we have a Labour government who are looking to reform the health service again with polices that are still along the right wing ideologies of a free market and state funding through taxation. Only time will tell as to how this will affect the welfare state as it stands today.
The development of health care policy over the last 100 years has shaped the welfare state to what we have today. The social, economic and political influences came about from the country needs for a healthier more educated society for protection and advancement in a modern world. The advancement of womens rights and the vote was instrumental in social policy becoming a main concern of governments. The Beveridge report showed the state of the nation and gave its recommendations on how to eradicate poverty. The welfare state was set up to achieve this and was quite successful in helping living standards improve. The welfare state did not remove poverty as many people today still live impoverished lives.
Poverty has changed in that there is less absolute poverty and more relative poverty than before. Social attitudes have changed with people having greater expectations in all aspects of life. This has lead to changes in family structure with more families being reconstituted than nuclear. Demographics of the country have also changed with fewer women having babies and those who do have fewer children. People are also living longer due to medical intervention and advances. This has far-reaching implication to the welfare state as more people becoming dependant on it with less people to pay for it.
De-industrial sation has resulted in more people living in relative poverty as job security is gone and people are working longer hours for low pay. This causes more ill health in the poorer section of society who are dependant on the state for care. This costs the NHS more money in staff, drugs and equipment. The liberal and conservatives were the main political influences on the welfare state. The liberals believed in free care for all whereas the conservatives believed if you could pay you should pay but also gave free care to all if needed. The conservatives brought in market forces and gave birth to the mixed economy of care that exists today.
All these policies have had their good and bad points. The welfare state is expensive and funding is now a major issue to deal with as our population ages. The government today must find a way to pay for the care industry which is spiraling out of control as patient expect lower waiting lists and excellent service without having to raise taxes. Health care is a very complicated issue to deal with as many other facets of life affects the health of our country such as poverty, demographics, the economy and politics.
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Research essay sample on Relative Poverty Mixed Economy
