WHY RATIONING IS ON THE AGENDA

The National Health Service Act of 1946 set out to provide a comprehen sive health service, free at the point of use, to the whole population of the UK.(1) The purpose-as Nye Bevan, then Minister of Health, put it-was to ensure that nobody should be denied, on the grounds of lack of means, 'the best that medical skill can provide'.(2) Among the many fears about the Act voiced at the time, the idea that the State would not be able to afford it was not one. Indeed, that wise man William B everidge had even mistakenly assumed, in the wartime White Paper on So cial Security, that good health care would ultimately save money for t he State, once an initial backlog of neglect had been made good, and t hat the cost of health insurance would then fall.(3)