Brexit Impact on Healthcare in UK

Brexit impact on healthcare in UK 1
BREXIT IMPACT ON HEALTHCARE IN UK
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Brexit impact on healthcare in UK 2
BREXIT IMPACT ON HEALTHCARE IN UK
The debate on the impact of Brexit on UK healthcare has continued to gain attention from
various groups and individuals. In the United Kingdom, some of the sectors that have a large
percentage of contribution to the economy include those in healthcare such as pharmaceutical
companies. The European Union has provided the UK with an opportunity to enlarge its market
size and earn returns from the healthcare industry. Exiting the union will imply that a reduction
in sales, for example, might go down for the pharmaceutical companies and this will directly
affect the country's economy. Researchers have stated that Brexit will lead to a reduced GDP for
the UK and this may result in a great recession. Despite the claims made by the United Kingdom
Independent Party, that funds channeled to EU will be used to fund the healthcare sector, the
government will have to intervene to ensure that the sector remains stable and effective in
growing the nation's economy.
According to the UK's National Health Service, (NHS), the country will have a shortage
of approximately16, 000 primary care physicians by 2020 and a shortage of more than 100,000
nurses by 2022. UK has in the past managed to close the gap through recruiting nurses and
doctors from foreign countries and mostly those members of the EU. Brexit will bring to an end
the guarantee of long term contracts for care providers from the various EU countries (Coyle,
2016, p. 27). The UK government will have to intervene by applying strategies that will
overcome the challenge and enhance the stability of the healthcare sector. Since withdrawal from
EU will affect companies in the healthcare sector including the pharmaceutical corporations and
the service delivery sector in healthcare facilities, the government will have to focus on ways of
ensuring that the effect does not go a long way to affect the overall economic power of the
nation. UK will also not have a chance to enjoy health benefits for its citizens in other EU

Brexit impact on healthcare in UK 3
countries a reason why the government will have to plan the various strategies that will create
economic and healthcare stability.
The government will intervene through the application of the fiscal policy to ensure that
there is adequate financing in the health sector thus overcoming the challenges associated with
Brexit. Application of this policy will aim at monitoring the government expenditure and its
composition in the country. This will then have an effect on the tax policies that the UK
government will adapt to ensure that there is adequate funding for the healthcare sector. Despite
the fact that the UK government would want to deny that Brexit will have major effects on the
health sector and the economy in general, there is a high probability that the country will go
through a recession where a fall in GDP will take place affecting almost every sector (Fahy et al.
2017, p. 2117). The most important sectors that remain a major concern to the citizens include
health and social care. An increase in taxes will have both benefits and drawbacks to the UK
citizens and corporations.
The benefits of using taxation as a government intervention measure to fight against
negative impacts associated with Brexit will include;
 An increase in taxes will increase government revenue- The UK government will have an
opportunity to increase its revenue and through reduced expenditure, it will channel the
funds acquired to the healthcare sector especially in the hospitals (Whyman and Petrescu
2017, p. 121). The government will have adequate funds to hire nurses and doctors from
other countries without relying on EU agreements.
 Enhance distribution of revenue across sectors- The taxation policy will have to require
the government to make a decision on the sectors to tax and on which sectors to spend.