Is the government responsible for our health? New research has found the UK’s health is going backwards for the first time. Some say we need to rethink how we pay for healthcare.
UK health is ‘going backwards’
Healthy living: As the UK’s healthy life expectancy drops for the first time, experts warn that the rise of lifestyle-related illnesses is threatening both the nation’s physical fitness and its long-standing social contract. Glossary
NHS - The National Health Service, the publicly funded healthcare system in the UK. The NHS was founded in 1948.
Obesity - The medical condition of being very overweight. There are many ways of measuring this, including a BMI of 30 or more. (You can work out your BMI by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in metres squared.)
Diabetes - A medical condition causing there to be too much sugar in the blood.
Welfare state - A safety net put in place by the government to ensure that no-one falls into poverty.
Social Contract - An agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits.
Taxes - There are three main ways for governments to obtain money: print it, borrow it or collect taxes.
Populist - The term comes from the People's Party, which operated in the USA in the 1890s. Now, it is often used to refer to any movement that makes a distinction between the "people" and the corrupt "establishment".