Private insurance cannot be off table

blackmorevaleSeptember 29, 20210 Comment0

This week Parliament returned to ‘normal’ operating procedures. No more proxy votes or virtual participation.

It’s either be there or be shouted at by the Chief Whip! Anyway, I think the powers that be decided we should return not slowly and peacefully but with a bang – the political version of a cold shower if you will. And so it was that we had a vote on raising additional taxes to pay for the NHS and for Social Care.

My first instinct was to abstain or vote against. You can call me old fashioned. We had, after all, made a manifesto pledge not to raise NI, income tax or VAT. I see a manifesto as a contract with the electorate. They choose you based upon what your party promises, and you abide by it. It is why I voted against the reduction in Overseas Aid.

I know some others were opposed to the NI rise because they believe in low or the lowest taxes. That has always struck me as a somewhat ideological approach. If one wants good quality, reliable public services they need to be funded by the public purse i.e., through taxation. I had no problem with the principle of raising taxes. It was having said we would not that weighed on my mind.

Then I remembered we were on the cusp of the anniversary of 9/11 and the Twin Towers. That event changed everything. Nothing has been the same since. And so too has covid. Unprecedented demands on public spending and borrowing to see us all through and to keep the NHS serving us. Keeping us safe and well. The perfectly logical focus of the NHS has created a massive backlog of waiting lists in all areas of health care. All MPs know this as we hear it in our inboxes and advice surgeries.

As your MP I was therefore left with a choice: 1) vote to increase taxes ringfenced for healthcare to tackle and reduce the waiting lists or 2) argue the point that we said we wouldn’t increase tax and that covid hadn’t changed anything and vote against or abstain. To do the latter would have turned me into an ideologue prepared to put into second place the health needs of many of my constituents. To do the former meant I was prepared to run some political fire to do the right thing for those who need the NHS. I voted for the increases in order to help the people of North Dorset.

Now, we all know we could provide 150% of GDP to the NHS and it would not be enough. The Health and Social Care Bill currently before Parliament presents an opportunity for ministers to take back some powers from NHS England and restore an element of democratic accountability. We must use the coming weeks to work out what we want Social Care to look like in the 2030s, 40s and 50s. We will fail if we only think of it as elderly care.

Social Care demand includes more than the elderly and we neglect this at our peril. We need to restore Local Government funding thereby allowing councils down on the ground, and who know their local communities and their needs, to increase their social care provision. Private social insurance provision cannot be taken off the table as we explore solutions to these problems. And they are difficult problems.