THE TOTAL INSANITY OF BRITISH NHS SPENDING

Click image to enlarge

Debates on the National Health Service typically emotionalise the issue and frame it in terms of "constant undersfunding." The fact, however, is that NHS spending in the UK has been more than generous. This BMA graph shows NHS spending in real terms since the financial year 1955-56.

I have coloured it to show which party was in power at the time:
Red = Labour, Blue = Conservative.

With an aging population and growing wealth, the amount spent on health could be expected to rise, but not by ten times. The obvious conclusion is that "more than generous" may well mean "cancerous" and unsustainable.

The efficiency with which money is spent is a separate topic, but I suspect that the UK taxpayer has been getting a lot less bang for his buck.