A group representing over five hundred NHS consultants has lost its campaign for compulsory health insurance in the UK, following its conclusion that increased taxation has been a failed government effort to reform the health service. Doctors for Reform claims that the NHS is not meeting public expectations, neither is it fulfilling the required standards of healthcare for this country. Leading cancer specialist and founding member of the independent think tank, Dr Maurice Slevin, told onlyfinance.com, "The time has come for a genuine debate on the future of healthcare."

Six million people in the UK have already taken out a private medical insurance policy, and the move would mean that the entire population would have to take out healthcare cover. It would not be similar to the healthcare system in the USA, where the public are given the option as to whether they cover themselves with health insurance. Those people with poorer finances would be given support to cover either the partial or whole cost of the policy under the plans, which came as ex Natwest Chief Executive, Derek Wanless, published his second report into the healthcare system.

Doctors for Reform has been in disagreement with government ministers over the matter, who believe that taxation should be the only method of funding for the NHS, and the plans were rejected by then Home Secretary, John Reid. Despite the setback, the group has said that it thinks that the issue should be dealt with out of the hands of politicians, and that reform should be based on the healthcare systems of European countries like France, Germany and Switzerland with increased diversity and choice for patients. Dr Slevin has said that this is where the problem lies, and he claims that the NHS has become impersonal. He told the BBC, "I have patients who say they feel they are victims of the system. This is not a drive to privatise but a drive to give people consumer power and stop them being treated in this very inefficient manner."