Healthcare

Why the NHS should be abolished


In this video, Dr Kristian Niemietz explains that the ongoing debate about the future of the National Health Service is typically superficial and parochial, failing to draw on the evidence from healthcare systems in other developed countries where outcomes are superior.

Contrary to the scare stories, it is in fact possible to combine the universal coverage of the NHS with high-quality private provision of healthcare services, as the insurance-based systems in several Western European countries demonstrate.

Dr Niemietz compares the performance of the NHS to its European counterparts in his recent paper, What are we afraid of? Universal healthcare in market-orientated health systems.


Head of Political Economy

Dr Kristian Niemietz is the IEA's Editorial Director, and Head of Political Economy. Kristian studied Economics at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and the Universidad de Salamanca, graduating in 2007 as Diplom-Volkswirt (≈MSc in Economics). During his studies, he interned at the Central Bank of Bolivia (2004), the National Statistics Office of Paraguay (2005), and at the IEA (2006). He also studied Political Economy at King's College London, graduating in 2013 with a PhD. Kristian previously worked as a Research Fellow at the Berlin-based Institute for Free Enterprise (IUF), and taught Economics at King's College London. He is the author of the books "Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies" (2019), "Universal Healthcare Without The NHS" (2016), "Redefining The Poverty Debate" (2012) and "A New Understanding of Poverty" (2011).



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