NHS should be paid for by insurance, says think-tank

The National Health Service (NHS) should be financed by insurance and not taxation, according to a cross-party group.

The Health Policy Consensus Group has concluded that the NHS should follow the example set by systems based on social insurance in Germany and France.

Group chairman David Green said: "Current policies are self-contradictory. The Government increasingly advocates consumer choice and yet the NHS remains a highly centralised public-sector monopoly."

In a statement the group said that reform of the method of finance was vital.

The group suggested that health insurance should now be compulsory.

Green added: "The new system would help to build a real sense of social solidarity, based on the conscious knowledge that we were contributing to a system that serves as a system of insurance for rich and poor alike."