§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his statement of 22 March 2004,Official Report, column 594, what the basis was for the statement that a policy of patients' passports paying for operations in the private sector would divert £2 billion of taxpayers' money away from the national health service. [164648]
§ Mr. HuttonThe Government calculate that the deadweight cost to the Exchequer of subsidising those who already pay for operations and other care in the private sector would be £2 billion per annum. The patient passport policy, whereby a voucher would cover 60 per cent. of the national health service cost of an operation in the private sector would cost an estimated £1 billion. This has been calculated using data on the number and distribution of private sector treatments, together with 2003 NHS reference costs to estimate the subsidy per procedure. A further £1 billion would be required to fund tax relief on national insurance contributions and income tax for company and private schemes. This is based on projections for company and private schemes from the Inland Revenue and Association of British Insurers.
190WThe £2 billion figure does not contain any estimate of the additional administration costs which would be required to operate such policies.