Reform unlikely to introduce insurance-based health system

Reform UK would be highly unlikely to introduce an insurance-based health system if they run the Welsh government after the Senedd election next May, BBC Wales has been told.

It is understood the party has rejected the idea because of the tight timescale and potential legal difficulties.

Party leader Nigel Farage called for a "fundamental rethink" to fix the Welsh NHS - including its funding model - during Reform's Welsh conference last November, and has previously talked of looking at the system used in France.

A Reform spokesperson said they were committed to a health service free at the point of delivery and keeping free prescriptions.

The party is yet to publish a full set of Wales-specific policies, although that has not stopped their political opponents from attacking their NHS plans.

The health service is likely to be one of the major battlegrounds at the next Senedd election with Labour's record on waiting lists - and the pledges made by other parties - likely to face intense scrutiny.

Last Saturday, the Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens used part of her speech at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno to accuse Reform of wanting to "sell the NHS to the highest bidder."

Plaid Cymru warned that Reform would seek to "privatise" the NHS at their conference in March.

The Welsh Conservatives have also made the NHS their top priority and say they would declare a health emergency and bring down waiting lists to no more than a year.

A Reform spokesperson said it believed in a health service that was free at the point of delivery and "it's committed to keeping prescriptions free".

"Look at what Labour's done. Waiting lists are at record highs - the worst in the whole UK. They can't get the staff in, and they can't keep the staff they've got.

"A Reform government will sort this out. We'll expose the waste, the failures, and the scandals in the NHS. We need to cut the waste, slash the bureaucracy, and end the inefficiency so patients actually get the care they need," they added.

In an interview on LBC radio on Thursday, Farage said he wanted the NHS to be funded through general taxation.

But he added that the money being paid was being competed for by different insurance companies "who say 'well I'll do 10,000 hip operations at this or at this', I just think we will get better bang for our buck".

He said that he had been "wilfully misinterpreted" by a Labour party that "is in real trouble".

Labour's UK care spokesperson Stephen Kinnock said the comments were confirmation that Reform "would look to charge patients for their healthcare".

Farage called for a debate on an insurance-based system when he was leader of UKIP back in 2015.

But Reform's 2024 general election promised an NHS free at the point of use alongside "major reforms".

In January this year, in a separate interview with LBC, he was asked if he was open to a "French-style insurance model for the NHS".

He replied that he did not want to "absolutely mimic the French system, but let's have a deeper broader thing".

He added "if we could get a more efficient better funding model, provided we give free care at the point of delivery, I am prepared to consider anything".

State healthcare in France is not generally free - costs are covered by a combination of statutory insurance funded through the tax system, supplementary private insurance and patients contributing through co-payments.

If any proposals to change the NHS funding model were to emerge they would be more likely in the party's manifesto for the next UK general election, expected in 2029.

It is thought there is a preference amongst the party's hierarchy for a UK-led approach on any change, even though the NHS in Wales is controlled by the Welsh government in Cardiff Bay.

The bulk of money available to Welsh ministers comes in the form of a block grant from the UK government at Westminster.

Recent increases to health spending in England have led to more money for Wales, which Welsh ministers have used to tackle record NHS waiting lists.

Reform has been polling consistently first or second in recent opinion polls ahead of next year's election which suggest they have a realistic chance of becoming the biggest party in the Senedd.

They would likely need to do some kind of deal with another of the parties to form a government.