UK election could decide fate of NHS

This appeared in The Millennial Source

On Thursday, December 12, the British people will once again elect a prime minister in a general election that some are suggesting is a referendum on the nation’s National Health Service (NHS). The NHS is the system of publicly funded healthcare providers in the United Kingdom, which has existed since 1948. As Britons head to the polls, the fate of the NHS remains uncertain.

Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn has asserted that Tory leadership intends to offer up the NHS in negotiations with the United States. This would mean that private companies could set the prices for medical care and medication. At the same time, current Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Tory Party members of parliament (MPs) have pushed back, stressing that the NHS is not for sale.

History and future of the NHS

The NHS was founded in 1948 by the then Minister for Health, Aneurin Bevan, in the wake of World War II at the time when the United Kingdom’s prime minister was Clement Attlee, leader of the Labour Party. The system based the provision of healthcare on citizenship — the first of its kind in the world. In the more than 70 years since its creation, the NHS has gone through numerous reforms.