>Unless we opt to see our health system take on a slightly more "free enterprise" tone, >tax rises to guarantee its future are inevitable. I'm not an economist, but I see no >reason why those rises wouldn't be substantial.

So to make the system more "affordable" instead of raising taxes, what we will do is transfer to a user payes system so the costs per user increases, without increasing taxes.

So the user/taxpayer still faces significant financial costs, either through taxation or increased out of pocket expenses.

Anyone who suggest that "free enterprise" is the saviour and will keep costs down, is either delusion or stands to make a lot of money.

Free enterprise in health is a failure, it costs more, lowers patients outcomes and does not want to deal with complex costly patients.

Lets look at what "FREE Enterprise" did to the cost of epi-pens, or to the drugs for HIV infectons. costs skyrocketed.

Here in Australia one company controls the cost of Nitrogen for use in ICU's on very sick patients, the cost skyrocketed as they control the market.

I think this article underestimates the cost savings that technology will bring.
But I know this article makes a much bigger calculation error: it ignores the impact of economic growth, which can povide more tax revenue without increasing the tax rate.

Since the GFC the British economy has stalled and what growth there is has been biased towards low value work. Concentrating on high value work would grow the economy much more. And importantly, improved health outcomes can also lead to economic growth, enabling people to keep working when they'd otherwise be dying of cancer, for example.

"I think this article underestimates the cost savings that technology will bring."

Over the years, more and more operations are using the laparoscopic approach that leads to shorter stays, but cost have failed to go down.

There are other technological innovations that have failed to deliver any savings, and wind up being expensive white elephants as continuous patches are need to keep things operating.

Medical Technology has benefited many in that the increase use of technology has saved many lives. but again there are no cost savings.

What will happen is once the generation of baby boomers no longer exists, the demand for beds will decrease.

Other things like lung disease caused by smoking will peak and then decrease as the number of people who never smoked will increase.

>Unless we opt to see our health system take on a slightly more "free enterprise" tone, >tax rises to guarantee its future are inevitable. I'm not an economist, but I see no >reason why those rises wouldn't be substantial.

Incorrect I'm afraid, Everyone on this forum would do well to research how money is created. If they did they would learn Its becoming more widely known all the time that banks create money out of thin air and that Govt can do the same thing using the exact same method to create money for their own use if they wanted to.

Are you aware that it was your servant govt who gave the banks the right to control the creation of money but at the same time your servants did not reserve for you and I, through their legislative power, the right to do the same thing on our behalf. If they had, it's likely that you and I would be paying little or no tax at all today.

Before someone goes on about govt cant be given control of money otherwise will have runaway inflation bla bla bla.

Govt prints about 5-10% of the money in circulation. The banks, through their ability to create money out thin air creates 90-95% of all the money in circulation.

You also need to know that there are no laws in any country about how much or how little credit banks can create. Think about booms and busts i.e. 1929, here.

In 1936 or thereabouts there was a Royal Commission into banking in Australia. The head of the enquiry stated “There is no reason by the Commonwealth Bank cannot create and lend money to the Australian Govt on such terms as it see fit. This includes the non repayment of interest and or principle.”

Start with this:

The Remarkable Model Of The Commonwealth Bank Of Australia by Ellen Brown,

Banks Lie, Chris Field