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Liberalizing the Health Care Market: The New Government's Ambition for the English National Health Service

Liberalizing the Health Care Market: The New Government's Ambition for the English National... England's National Health Service (NHS) faces the prospect of a radical overhaul by the current coalition government, with the aim of improving the quality and efficiency of health services. The government has identified the increased use of competition between providers as a primary lever to achieve its goals and is creating a competitive market comprising state, private, and not-for-profit providers. This market will be overseen by an independent economic regulator with powers to intervene and shape local markets for health services. While the use of market incentives is not wholly novel, if implemented, these new reforms imply a rapid expansion of the scope and scale of competitive market forces within the NHS. This article examines the government's current proposals for increased use of competition and considers its potential impact in the light of the available evidence. It argues that despite some research evidence pointing to the potentially beneficial effects of competition on quality and efficiency, there are also risks of adverse outcomes. Consequently, there is significant uncertainty as to whether this policy will deliver the desired objectives. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png International Journal of Health Services SAGE

Liberalizing the Health Care Market: The New Government's Ambition for the English National Health Service

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References (16)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
© 2011 SAGE Publications
ISSN
0020-7314
eISSN
1541-4469
DOI
10.2190/HS.41.3.i
pmid
21842578
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

England's National Health Service (NHS) faces the prospect of a radical overhaul by the current coalition government, with the aim of improving the quality and efficiency of health services. The government has identified the increased use of competition between providers as a primary lever to achieve its goals and is creating a competitive market comprising state, private, and not-for-profit providers. This market will be overseen by an independent economic regulator with powers to intervene and shape local markets for health services. While the use of market incentives is not wholly novel, if implemented, these new reforms imply a rapid expansion of the scope and scale of competitive market forces within the NHS. This article examines the government's current proposals for increased use of competition and considers its potential impact in the light of the available evidence. It argues that despite some research evidence pointing to the potentially beneficial effects of competition on quality and efficiency, there are also risks of adverse outcomes. Consequently, there is significant uncertainty as to whether this policy will deliver the desired objectives.

Journal

International Journal of Health Services – SAGE

Published: Jul 1, 2011

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