{"id":470848,"date":"2026-03-12T04:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T04:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/470848\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T04:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T04:27:07","slug":"nigel-farage-breaks-with-his-welsh-leader-over-insurance-system-for-the-nhs-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/470848\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigel Farage breaks with his Welsh leader over insurance system for the NHS \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

His position differs from that of Farage, who leads the insurgent party across the U.K. It is an early sign of the challenge that faces Farage \u2014 who has long had a presidential-like hold on his parties \u2014 in reconciling the messaging from Reform\u2019s growing network of office-holders.<\/p>\n

While a Reform spokesperson told POLITICO it would keep the NHS free at the point of use for British citizens, Farage has not ruled out other reforms, such as moving funding of the NHS from general taxation to an insurance system.<\/p>\n

Asked at the party\u2019s Welsh manifesto launch on Mar. 5 if he would be prepared to look at reforms such as a French-style insurance system (in which citizens have mandatory insurance and pay through social security contributions), Farage said<\/a>: \u201cThat would be a national decision ahead of a general election.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cOn the big U.K. picture of health, I\u2019m prepared to consider any alternative to the failure we\u2019ve got now \u2026 as for devolved powers, I\u2019ll let Dan speak to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas later said he would not support moving to an insurance-based system in Wales. \u201cNo, no,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cWe rule out any kind of insurance system or any kind of privatization.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be free at the point of use. That\u2019s what the public in Wales wants, and that\u2019s what we will deliver.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His position differs from that of Farage, who leads the insurgent party across the U.K. It is an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[458,168379,461,309,59,57,58,2960,1349,50,633,423,470,1351,1352,473,56,54,55,11854,1220,93754],"class_list":["post-470848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-budget","tag-devolved-powers","tag-elections","tag-england","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-healthcare","tag-insurance","tag-news","tag-nigel-farage","tag-parliament","tag-rights","tag-security","tag-services","tag-tanks","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-visas","tag-wales","tag-westminster-insider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}