Health—Andrew

Heh, Andrew, I hadn't forgotten! Though I do apologise (Andrew was one of the first to email me his policies) for the delay.

On health, we're going to privatise the NHS, but we're going to do it in such a way that people who have most at stake end up with some ownership. Basically, every NHS trust will be spun off as a Ltd company, with 20% of the shares going to the present employees (to be split according to length of service, I'd imagine...). The other 80% will go to taxpayers living in the local catchment area (to be defined) in proportion to the amount of national insurance they have paid over their working lives.

This will mean that the elderly in particular, end up with a hefty share of the new companies, which they can sell to subsidise their own private healthcare. The idea is that no-one gets too screwed over in the transition, plus it buys up the elderly vote quite nicely. Anyone under retirement age should be able to get health insurance anyway, as we're going to provide a tapered subsidy according to age and means, reducing over time, to 'encourage' the market and keep voters quiet. The new companies will be encouraged to do a certain amount of work pro bono, and the government will pay for all emergency healthcare (A&E, mainly) through general taxation.

We're also going to make unions in healthcare illegal, just for kicks.

I had a couple of questions about this:

• 1) What happens when we dump NI (as I would like to do).


• 2) How are these shares passed on? Do they get taxed as Inheritance? (Obviously, given the choice, I'd scrap IHT, but some people object.)


• 3) Doesn't giving those in the catchment area a stake in the company slightly limit these companies? If people move out of the catchment area, do they lose their stake?


• 4) Are these not for profit companies? Or will dividends be paid?

Andrew replied (remarkably swiftly as it happens):

• 1. Not a problem - we're just using historical data to split up the shareholdings.


• 2. Treated like any other company share - they can be sold, traded, etc... - Taxed according to how we decide to tax capital. I'd expect most people to cash them in straight away, like Building society windfalls.


• 3. No, it's just for the initial set-up. After that, the shares will be freely tradeable.


• 4. Not at all. They will be totally independent to run as they like. I'd expect most would be like any other company - going for profits, paying dividends, but it's up to each company's management to make those choices.

Essentially, it's a slightly complicated way of ensuring that ownership of the health service passes to the people who've paid for it, or worked in it. It defends us against charges of selling off the NHS to our rich buddies in the City, as we're giving it to the people.