Health affects every aspect of life, and it not surprising that health care is a major focus for social concern. Governments have been aware of the importance of the population's access to health care for a very long time and began to intervene in this sense even before 1900, in helping the poor people. However, the true first step in the state's intervention in health care occurred after the end of the second Boer War, in 1911, with the Health Insurance Act. It was a first step, but some important problems in the functioning of the system, as for example the difficulties of the middle classes to access to care, made changes necessary. Among the first part of the twentieth century, some others steps had been taken towards the building of a National Health Service (N.H.S.). In this, the Beveridge report of 1942 has been particularly important. We have had to wait until the end of the Second World War to assist to the creation of the N.H.S., with the "National Service Act" of 1946.
[...] Judge, M. Whitehead, Tackling Inequalities in Health, King's Fund, London CH.7: role of the N.H.S.” by M. Benzeval, K. Judge, M. Whitehead, p.107. (Ed.) M. Benzeval, K. Judge, M. Whitehead, Tackling Inequalities in Health, King's Fund, London CH.7: role of the N.H.S.” by M. Benzeval, K. Judge, M. Whitehead, p.110. (Ed.) M. Benzeval, K. Judge, M. Whitehead, Tackling Inequalities in Health, King's Fund, London CH.7: role of the N.H.S.” by M. Benzeval, K. Judge, M. Whitehead p.100. (Ed.) M. Benzeval, K. [...]
[...] In this consideration, governments took measures to improve the allocation of health care in the country. We can look at that in studying the two main funding streams separately: Hospital and Community Health Services (H.C.H.S.), and Family Health Service (F.H.S.). Concerning the H.C.H.S, the most significant block of the N.H.S. expenditure is made available to regional authorities. The Resource Allocation Working Party (R.A.W.P.), in 1976, recommended that financial allocation for regional health authorities should be based on population estimates that had been adjusted to take account of local variations in needs. [...]
[...] concerning the fulfilment of its commitment to equal care for all. Have they succeeded in that? If not, what else could be done to reduce the inequalities in health care? These reflections concerning the lack of equality in health care had led the government? Taking measures to try to improve the situation. The attempts of reforms of the N.H.S. have been spread throughout time and have had several objectives. Their results have been unequal. It would be too long to quote every attempt of improvement of the N.H.S. [...]
[...] Their actions were not important enough and the central objective of N.H.S to provide an equal health care for all has still not been fulfilled. There are a lot of new measures that the governments could take to tackle inequalities in health care, as suggest the book by M. Benzeval, K. Judge, and M. Whitehead[23].They suggest different measures that the governments could take, both at the national and local score. Concerning the national action, they refer to the formulation of health policy with specific reference to inequalities and a commitment to take action on them, and a multi sectoral action, with the development of mechanisms for setting up equity-orientated policy across government departments[24]. [...]
[...] An “equal opportunity of access to health care for people at equal was, in 1976, the main objective of The Working Party on the reallocation of resources within the N.H.S. The Royal Commission on the National Health Service, in 1979, included two objectives explicitly concerned with equality: “equality of entitlement to Health Services ( ) without respect to age, social class, sex, race or religion” and “equality of access to these services”[5]. David Owen, who had been a Minister of State for Health, described the central task of the N.H.S. [...]
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