A member of one of the UK’s top health insurance trade associations says that a two tier health system is becoming inevitable due to some of the decisions made by the NHS. Mike Izzard, from the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries, told the Private Healthcare UK website, that the recommendations made to the NHS by NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) about which drugs are the most cost effective are helping to maintain the strong position of private healthcare. One of the latest recommendations by NICE that yet another cancer drug, Avastin, is not a good use of NHS resources may be encouraging more people to avoid the NHS altogether by getting a quote for private health insurance and there by giving them affordable access to private treatment where drugs that are not provided by the NHS are more likely to be available.


The government would like to see a single tier of health service, where the NHS is suited to everyone’s needs but Mike Izzard says this is becoming less likely. “All the major political parties keep claiming they want the best healthcare service and they want to avoid a two-tier healthcare system with the NHS on one side and the private sector on the other. But bit-by-bit the NHS’s potential effectiveness keeps being eroded away by NICE. If the NHS cannot provide the possible live saving treatment which is now available, then the private sector will have to step in more and more with the result that a two tier system becomes inevitable, whatever the political ideals.”