Is Simon Stevens one of the most dangerous men in public office? ∞
Dr Bob Gill, part of the Save Our NHS campaign, told George Galloway’s Sputnik programme on RT:
Simon Stevens, he needs to become a household name. He served the Blair government, he then went on to work for UnitedHealth – one of the biggest private insurers for healthcare in America. While he was there he campaigned against Obamacare – Obama’s reforms – then he went on to campaign for TTIP to include healthcare. And now he’s in charge of the NHS.
Simon Stevens, in my view, is one of the most dangerous men in public office.
This isn’t the first time that someone has raised concerns about Simon Stevens being responsible for the NHS after playing a key role in opening up the NHS to the market and working for one of the largest private healthcare firms in the world, but it’s an eloquent distillation of those concerns.
Here is a quick summary of Stevens’ career:
1997 – 2001: Senior policy adviser at the Department of Health. Co-author of the NHS Plan.
2001 – 2004: Tony Blair’s senior health adviser.
2004 – 2014: Senior executive for UnitedHealth Group in the US. Started off as European President of UnitedHealth and became their President of Global Health in 2009. UnitedHealth helped found the ‘Alliance for Healthcare Competitiveness’ (AHC) and Stevens was one of the group’s press spokesmen. The AHC views healthcare providers like the NHS as an unwanted ‘market distortion’.
- 2014: Became CEO of NHS England.