Household Tax Rises Needed to Save the NHS

To cope with the demands of an ageing population, more complex illnesses and rising cost of drugs the National Health Service needs £2,000 in tax from every British households, which warns the unprecedented financial pressures on the health system.
The economists said that merely to maintain provision at current levels, spending on health care will have to rise by an average 3.3 per cent a year above inflation over the next 15 years.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Health Foundation, have said there can be no alternative to higher taxation if there are to be even modest improvements to care over the next 15 years, adding that demands on the health service will continue to rise.
The report said the NHS has been struggling to cope after the toughest financial constraints in its 70-year history had been imposed on the service. Costs were bound to increase due to demographic change, an increase in chronic illnesses and bigger bills for staff and drugs.
The IFS said that would require taxes to rise by between 1.6 and 2.6 per cent of GDP, the equivalent of between £1,200 and £2,000 per household.
The huge hike, which could be phased in by 2033/34, would take health spending to almost 10 per cent of national income, up from 7.3 per cent today.
The research was published as the Spectator reported that Theresa May had decided to increase the NHS’s budget by 3% a year for each of the remaining four years of this parliament. It means that, by 2022, the health service would be getting the £350m a week extra. However a Whitehall source said the report was inaccurate
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and an author of the report said, “this time we won’t be able to rely on cutting spending elsewhere, we will have to pay more in tax”.
>Juthy Saha