Filling the gap: Tax and fiscal options for a sustainable UK health and social care system

The NHS and publicly funded adult social care will account for £157bn of public spending across the UK in 2015/16 – equivalent to 8.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) and accounting for around £1 in every £5 of government spending.

Economists at the Health Foundation and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) have worked together to explore the potential funding gap for health and adult social care in the UK between now and 2030/31. We have also looked at options for filling that gap through personal taxation.

This is a UK-wide report. We have analysed the projected costs for publicly funded health and adult social care in England, and adjusted them to provide an estimate for the UK. Models for health are based on work undertaken by the authors. For adult social care, we have based our estimates on projections for England undertaken by colleagues at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). All figures are in 2015/16 prices.

See the report at The Health Foundation.