“Introducing VAT on private health provision could provide vital funding for the NHS and social care.”
The former Labour leader Neil Kinnock has called for the government to introduce VAT on private healthcare in order to help finance public services. Estimates from the Good Growth Foundation suggest doing so, with exemptions for NHS use of private hospitals, could raise around £2 billion.
Kinnock said: “Introducing VAT on private health provision could provide vital funding for the NHS and social care.
“After 14 years of underinvestment, many people are turning to private healthcare not out of choice, but because they cannot afford to wait. This has increasingly led to unequal access to care.
“Ending the VAT exemption to generate much-needed revenue is a reasonable and widely supported step.”
Removing the VAT exemption on private healthcare would mirror the government’s previous move to introduce VAT on private school fees.
According to The i Paper, the government has refused to comment on whether it would consider introducing VAT on private healthcare in the autumn budget.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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