UK Tories Back Tax Relief For Private Healthcare

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

27 August 2009

The majority of Conservative members of parliament in the UK would support the introduction of tax relief on private medical insurance were such measures to be proposed, highlighting something of a party split on the issue of health policy, a new poll has revealed.

As the debate rages in the United States about the rights and wrongs of government involvement in the provision of health care, a new survey of MPs by ComRes on behalf of BMI healthcare, part of General Healthcare Group, showed that two-thirds (66%) of Tory MPs supported the idea of income tax relief on standard rate income tax for private medical insurance and 55% were in favour of tax relief on private healthcare fees. By contrast, only 1% of Labour MPs were in favour of either proposal.

The findings are somewhat controversial as Tory leader David Cameron, whose disabled son, Ivan, was treated by the National Health Service (NHS) prior to his death last year, has made no secret of the fact that he supports the principle of a nationalized health service paid for out of general taxation. Indeed, the healthcare budget will be the only area of government spending that won’t face cuts should the Tories take power at the next election - due no later than next June - as is widely predicated.

Interestingly, the poll revealed that almost three-quarters (72%) of all MPs survey that were born before 1950 believe that the current NHS model of care free at the point of delivery is sustainable for the next 60 years, but only 44% of MPs born after 1960 agreed with this statement.

The NHS budget grew by 7% a year in real terms from 2000 (when Tony Blair was Prime Minister) to 2007, and is now 150% higher than it was nine years ago, and Cameron has had a tough time selling his health policies to the party. However, it would be a brave party leader to go to the electorate on an NHS privatisation platform, something not even the iron lady, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, dare do.

But, underlining the apparent division between the leadership and the Tory rank and file on the issue, Cameron was recently forced to assure voters that his was the “party of the NHS” following comments from a Conservative member of the European parliament that the NHS had been a “60 year mistake”.

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