Assuming Austerity: The Politics of the NHS Systems Available to Purchase

The English National Health System (NHS) is one of the world's most famous health systems. In international health and social policy conversations, it is an influential ideal type whose experiences inform policy and analysis. In some political conversations, especially in the United States, it is a nonsensical bogeyman of rationing and poor care that politicians of the right use to scare their constituents (Ehlke 2011). In others, it is a model of an innovative and egalitarian health care system. In Britain, it is seen as an expression of identity, “our NHS,” the “closest thing to a national religion” according to Nigel Lawson (Hardman, 4), and, as endless surveys and actions show, one of the UK's most popular and beloved institutions (Stewart 2023). It is an important case in comparative social policy, a highly egalitarian and redistributive health care system in a country that is generally not egalitarian at...