This letter first appeared in the Financial Times

Martin Wolf’s article encouraging the Tories “to abandon their shibboleths” with respect to economic policy and embrace social insurance as a means of raising more revenue in an era of low investment and low growth is most timely (Opinion, November 14).

But it does not mention the most obvious beneficiary, the NHS. Social insurance is the usual means by which most European countries provide universal health coverage with outcomes far better than our NHS.

Social insurance ensures that health expenditure is hypothecated and that policy and overall expenditure is decided by politicians and civil servants but that delivery is undertaken by doctors and financial and managerial professionals who understand cost.

Our NHS is going through another reform yet what it really needs is a transformation of how it is funded that will improve its efficiency and foster better working practices.