Back to the future

摘要

How much better our healthcare system would surely be if it was based on those most noble human impulses, self help, voluntary effort, and charitable giving-reinforced, perhaps, with a diversity of providers troubled by the very minimum of regulation. Such a blueprint might be vigorously advocated by the think tanks currently commanding attention in Downing Street. But of course, just such a system existed in the UK before the NHS was founded, and the ramshackle, chaotic, and disorganised services it produced left millions in terror of falling ill.