A panel of insurance and medical experts speaking on the trends and changes in UK healthcare system ...
A panel of insurance and medical experts speaking on the trends and changes in UK healthcare system at the AMII event posed the question: Is healthcare too politicised - or not political enough?
The debate followed Professor Robert Winston's call for healthcare to be made apolitical.
Integrated healthcare provision of the private and public services was predicted by the experts.
The panel also agreed health insurance premiums would go up with the rise in pension age.
Mike Hall, chief executive officer at Standard Life Healthcare, said premiums were likely to rise when the new age discrimination legislation comes into effect in October.
"It is an issue we need to address; the fact is that we have an ageing population and the Government does not have the money to support the public health system now or in the future," Hall said.
He explained that one of the reasons healthcare cover was expensive was because people pay for it twice - through private medical insurance and through tax contributions to the state system.
"If you can start to agree there should be a partnership between what the NHS can do and what the private sector can do and take out some of that duplication it could be cheaper," stated Hall.
The panel agreed that the next few years would witness more private-public partnerships. Professor Nick Bosanquet, professor of health policy at Imperial College, in London, said: "I think we will see an increase in the rise of private health insurance complementing the NHS."
