Anthony Blair’s first cabinet health policy: A matter of priorities

The article considers the health policy priorities of Anthony Blair’s first Labour government in the UK. It is shown that the social and economic policy of neo-conservatives led to crisis phenomena in the health care system; the creation of an internal market in the field of the National Health Service has caused numerous problems. The Labour Party, which was undergoing a transformation in the late 1980s, was looking for approaches to reform the health service. It is concluded that Tony Blair’s government offered its own solution to the crisis, which was called “the third way”. This concept has become a pragmatic approach that combines the market ideas of the neoconservatives and the unconventional approaches of the “traditional Labour”.

Great Britain, Neoconservatives, “social conservatism”, New Labour, Anthony Blair, National Health Service, the Third Way, social policy, health care, social care