ABSTRACT
For Aneurin Bevan 'The essence of a satisfactory health service is that the rich and the poor are treated alike, that poverty is not a disability, and wealth is not advantaged'. The tax system, because it was progressive, was the best way of safeguarding this principle. Bevan's observation that the National Health Service (NHS) would destroy whoever tried to destroy it has defined the policy arena on NHS funding from 1948. The Association of community health councils (CHCs) said the NHS reforms had been introduced to deal with the problem of trusts running out of money at the end of the financial year. NHS continuing care beds are there to deal with elderly people who are admitted to hospital with medical conditions and who need medical care. Analysis by economists at the London School of Economics for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that private medical insurance and permanent health insurance would cost poorer people comparatively more of their incomes.
