ABSTRACT
Po l i cy context From an international perspective, at the beginning of the 1 980s the funding of healthcare in the UK had three distinguishing characteristics :
l relative to national income, a low level of total expenditure . The UK healthcare share of 5 . 6 % of GDP compared with an average of 6 . 9 % across the OECD
2 a high level of dependence on public finances . Public expenditure accounted for 8 9 % of total healthcare expenditure, compared with an average of 7 6 % for the countries of the OECD
3 a reliance on general taxation as the predominant source of public funding. General taxation provided nearly 90% of funding, and the NHS element of National Insurance contributions was (and is) essentially an accounting convention.
