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Comment by smcl | Hacker News Reader

The NHS in the UK is after a decade of sabotage by a Conservative government who would like nothing more than to see it scrapped and replaced with private healthcare insurance like the US has. As it stands it is a system that is being starved of resources and yet it is still outperforming the US.

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Can you explain how 6.5%/year increases in budget over 12 years is "starving"? Also curious how you square "outperforming" with the worst ever waiting times for critical surgeries.

> Can you explain how 6.5%/year increases in budget

Yes! It needs more. Glad to have cleared that up.

> Also curious how you square "outperforming" ...

This is the conclusion of the study in the article you're commenting on

France increased healthcare spending by 0.3%/year between 2010 and 2019.

UK is outpacing France's spending increases by 2,066%. How does the UK need over 20x more spending increases than its close neighbor, exactly?

In 2017 (a year for which I have statistics) France spent 25% more per person on healthcare than the UK.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthan...

The initial claim was that healthcare was being "starved", I don't think 20x more than their neighbors in spending increases is "starved".

Besides, in 2019, the difference was 4% on a per capita basis -- according to World Bank figures. [1] [2] Probably reflecting the massive difference in spending increases.

Given the NHS' planned spending increases from now until 2025, it is very likely the UK will overtake France altogether. NHS spending plans to 2025 that are already agreed outpace inflation by 6 billion pounds.

[1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.PC.CD?locat...

[2] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.PC.CD?locat...

Growing and aging population is the main two.

The Financial Times has published stark data showing persistent underinvestment when Conservatives are in power, compared with peer countries.

> In 2017, the UK spent £2,989 per person on healthcare, which was around the median for members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: OECD.

> of the G7 group of large, developed economies, UK healthcare spending per person was the second-lowest, with the highest spenders being France (£3,737), Germany (£4,432) and the United States (£7,736).

> As a percentage of GDP, UK healthcare spending fell from 9.8% in 2013 to 9.6% in 2017.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthan...

Health care inflation is significantly higher than the retail price index. The population is aging - older people consume far more health resources than younger people.

I'm fairly sure that half a min of extra searching for stats would have turned up number of patients treated over that 12 year period - up 12% excluding covid, which pushed waiting lists up massively.

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/audio-video/key-facts-figures-n...

TBH I think most of the recent spending has been in management, rather than where it actually needs to be, so that doesn't help.

As mentioned, outperforming here is a relative benchmark vs the US, as stated in the article.

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