UK private drug payments – a can of worms for the pharma industry

Editorial - November 2008
Francesca Bruce

Last week Alan Johnson, the UK's health secretary, sparked controversy after announcing that National Health Service patients would be able to buy medicines privately without forfeiting their right to state-funded treatment.

Those against the proposal accuse the government of undermining the NHS's founding principle of equity in access to healthcare regardless of a patient's ability to pay. "The first evil that we must deal with is that ... a person ought to be able to receive medical and hospital help without being involved in financial anxiety," said Aneurin Bevan, health minister when the NHS was established in 1948.

Critics argue that the measure may transform the NHS into a two-tiered system that provides a basic healthcare package that can be topped up by the rich, but not by the poor...


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