Free to Choose? Reform and Demand Response in the English National Health Service

Marty Gaynor, Carol Propper, Stephan Seiler, 9 December 2012

The impacts of choice in public services are controversial. This paper exploits a reform in the English National Health Service to assess the impact of relaxing constraints on patient choice. The results suggest that greater choice can enhance quality.

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URL: www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP9250.asp
Topics: Health economics
Tags: demand estimation, Healthcare reform, patient choice

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Free to choose?

Marty Gaynor, Carol Propper, Stephan Seiler, 13 January 2013

Greater choice and competition in healthcare is a popular reform model. This column discusses recent research suggesting that once restrictions on choice in the UK’s NHS were lifted, patients receiving cardiac surgery became more responsive to the quality of their care. This saved lives and gave hospitals a greater incentive to improve quality.

A central plank of the NHS reforms implemented by the UK Labour government of the 2000s was the introduction of patient choice. For the first time in the history of the NHS it was mandated that patients should have a say in the choice of hospital when being referred for an elective treatment.

Topics: Health economics
Tags: health, NHS, patient choice