The Road to the National Health Service: Finance, Markets and the United Kingdom’s Universal Health System

Though some private practice was permitted, the central state became the primary funder and provider of health care in the UK after 1948, in contrast to the insurance led systems taking shape across Europe where who paid and who provided care remained separate and doctors operated as ‘liberal professionals’ in a medical market place. This chapter examines the extent to which healthcare was a business operating within a market place before the establishment of the National Health System.