Voters say that health is an election priority – second only to the economy in some polls. But whether the parties’ manifesto pledges on the NHS will influence people’s decisions in the polling booth is another matter. In part, this is due to the high level of consensus between the three main parties on the key NHS policies. In some places their manifestos are almost indistinguishable.
All the parties are committed to a tax-funded NHS, free at the point of use – not a surprising position for either Labour or the Liberal Democrats, but the Conservatives‘ conversion to this particular canon of public sector piety is more recent. In their 2005 manifesto, they promoted a policy to use NHS funds to subsidise the bills of patients paying for private sector treatment, to bring waiting lists down. But this was ditched soon afterwards and David Cameron’s commitment to the current NHS funding system has been unwavering since 2006, notwithstanding mutterings amongst some Conservative backbenchers about the need to discuss alternative funding options in the future.
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