Why was the NHS set up?
The NHS was set up in 1948, so that everybody shared the burden of paying for healthcare from by doctors, nurses, midwives, and dentists – rather than the costs coming directly from ill or injured people.
It is an example of a ‘socialised healthcare system’. It was not first in the world.
The first social health insurance system was established in Germany in 1883 by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck through the Sickness Insurance Law.
This 1948 leaflet that was sent out to all people when the NHS started:
It’s worth reading.
It said:
Everyone – rich or poor, man, woman or child – can use it or any part of it. There are no charges, except for a few items. There are no insurance qualifications. But it is not a “charity”. You are all paying for it, mainly as taxpayers, and it will relieve your money worries in time of illness’
Before the NHS there were many different health systems in Britain.
Low paid working people could rely on the National Health Insurance scheme (set up by the National Insurance Act in 1911) to help pay medical costs.
People in certain places were covered by council schemes, and some male workers took out membership in organisations called ‘friendly societies’ to help cover their costs.
But many people still had to pay for some of their care themselves. And some people – especially women, childen and people out of work – had to pay directly for any care they needed.
So the major reason for creating the NHS was to provide health services to everyone in the UK; and “nobody need any longer pay doctors’ or hospital bills when they were sick” – with the aim of making medical care available whether you were rich or poor. This is called universal care.
