Health and social care
What the manifesto says: More than £6bn extra in annual funding from increasing income tax on the top 5% of earners and increasing tax on private medical insurance. Guarantee access to NHS treatment within 18 weeks and being seen in A&E within four hours. Scrap NHS pay cap. Suspend planned hospital closures. Will put an extra £8bn into social care, including £1bn in the first year, to address the immediate crisis.
Analysis: This is expensive but is the one area of public life where throwing more money at it really could be the answer. The British Medical Association immediately responded by saying the NHS needed £10bn, not £6bn. All will depend on how the extra funding is raised. Simply focusing on the top 5% of earners is unlikely to yield the kind of sums needed. It will also mean massive expansion of the NHS workforce but there is little acknowledgement of the cost involved.
