Calls for income tax rise to support the NHS miss the point. It is being starved deliberately

Last Updated: February 16, 2016By

Lord Kerslake says: ‘Health spending needs to rise at least in line with GDP’ [Image: Steve Parsons/PA].

Is this former civil service chief simply saying what people want to hear, in order to sooth concerns?

A Conservative Government, such as we have now, will not increase income tax to fund a National Health Service it wants to kill – and be in no doubt about that; the Tories are avid to kill the NHS.

No – the plan is to starve the NHS of funding and resources, thereby eroding service standards in order to increase complaints. Think about the A&E crisis and the winter care crisis. The dispute with junior doctors is part of this – if they leave the NHS because of a pay offer by Jeremy Hunt that is dangerous to patients, who do you think will get the blame when patient care suffers? Not Mr Hunt because the mass media are his party’s puppies.

Increased complaints will allow the Conservative Parasites to say a publicly-funded health service doesn’t work, and health should be handed entirely to their friends, the private healthcare parasites – who will charge high prices.

Result: Poor people lose all healthcare. The return of diseases we haven’t seen since the 1940s. A massive increase in infirmity among working class people and the unemployed.

For the Conservative Parasites – job done.

Income tax will have to increase by at least 3p in the pound to deal with the massive pressures on NHS funding and to guarantee future healthcare, the former head of the civil service Lord Kerslake has said.

In a stark assessment of NHS finances, Kerslake said that big questions needed to be asked to ensure that spending kept up with medical advances, an ageing population and the need to invest in hospitals.

Kerslake said: “Health spending needs to rise at least in line with GDP. Arguably, we may need to go faster if we want to match European funding. You might argue there is a discount there because we have a more efficient system. But it’s got to be at least GDP-linked otherwise I don’t think we’ll get there.”

The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that increasing NHS spending in line with the growth of the economy, rather than seeing it rise simply in line with inflation, would involve a 3p in the pound increase on all tax bands.

Source: Income tax must rise 3p to stop NHS ‘staggering from year to year’ | Society | The Guardian

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No Comments

  1. Dez February 16, 2016 at 1:18 pm - Reply

    Reads like the Cons cunning plan is coming together based on the assumption that the rank and file have not got a clue all this is and has been going on in the background for a fair while now. Like the banks looks like the Cons also want the real UK population to build up the NHS Funds to make it a more attractive carrot for their privatisation mates to grab the best bits of the action….leaving the rubbish non-profit areas to the public purse to deal with using what crumbs of investments that are left after the vultuires have had their fill. I guess this 3p warning is just the taster lead to the Chancellors next budget announcement where it will be announced along with petrol tax imposition….grab grab grab. Whiles their mates carry on fiddling their overflowing accounting diversion off shore.

  2. Florence February 16, 2016 at 2:07 pm - Reply

    Well there’s that £31 billion in the ring-fenced NI Fund. But as you say, it’s not a funding problem, it”s an ideological strangulation problem.

  3. Daniel Margrain February 17, 2016 at 12:06 am - Reply

    Chomsky has been aware for a long time how governments’ deliberately run down public services as the prelude to their privatization. The Tories approach to the NHS follows this pattern.

  4. NMac February 17, 2016 at 11:57 am - Reply

    The Tories have hated the NHS ever since its inception in 1948. The depth of their hatred for the NHS (which of course as hypocrites they take full use of when it suits them) can not be overestimated.

  5. Malcolm MacINTYRE-READ February 17, 2016 at 4:59 pm - Reply

    Another aspect is the Con Gov’s refusal to recognise the body of evidence against the NHS management culture of denial, blame, & scapegoating created by Sir David Nicholson, both at Mid-Staffs and then as ChExec of NHS England.

    While he enjoys his cosy, publicly funded retirement, when he should have been sacked over Mid-Staffs deaths alone, those managers continue to perpetuate his culture and gain salaries to increase the growing disaster.

    “All’s well that ends well”, as our Dave says… probably every hour the rate he is going!

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