1 House of Lords

Health and Social Care Bill 2011. HL Bill 92.

2 Pollock AM

Price D How the Secretary of State for Health proposes to abolish the NHS in England.

3 NHS Futures Forum

4 House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution

5 House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution

The National Health Service (NHS) in England has been a leading international model of tax-financed, universal health care. Legal analysis shows that the Health and Social Care Bill currently making its way through the UK Parliamentwould abolish that modeland pave the way for the introduction of a US-style health system by eroding entitlement to equality of health-care provision. The Bill severs the duty of the Secretary of State for Health to secure comprehensive health care throughout England and introduces competitive markets and structures consistent with greater inequality of provision, mixed funding, and widespread provision by private health corporations. The Bill has had a turbulent passage. Unusually, the legislative process was suspended for more than 2 months in 2011 because of the weight of public concern.It was recommitted to Parliament largely unaltered after a “listening exercise”. These and more recent amendments to the Bill do not sufficiently address major concerns that continue to be raised by Peers and a Constitution Committee of the House of Lords,where the Bill now faces one of its last parliamentary hurdles before becoming law.