As an alternative to my earlier blog post, here’s Andrew Lansley’s take on Alan Johnson’s top-up announcement today – Pete Hoskin
In his announcement today Alan Johnson sought to put right the awful spectre of patients being denied NHS care because they have accessed private treatment. It is a situation that was morally repugnant and needed to change months ago.
But in so doing Labour have jumped out of that particular frying pan, and into the fire of forcing patients to pay for their care and creating a two-tier NHS. At the Labour Party conference Gordon Brown pledged to stop cancer patients from having to pay £7.10 for a prescription; but they are now saying they are prepared for them to pay tens of thousands of pounds a year for other life-extending cancer drugs. I think this is a telling example of the confusion at the heart of Labour’s health policy.
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