Preventative medicine or backdoor private healthcare?
The push to move responsibility for our health onto our personal lifestyle choices is increasing – but all the evidence about growing inequality shows that traditional in-hospital care is absolutely vital, explains HELEN O’CONNOR

THE illusion that good health comes from within individuals and is entirely based on the choices individuals make is not only false, it is paving the way for NHS hospitals to be removed from local communities.
Assumptions are made that absolutely anyone can enjoy good health if only they tried a bit harder, spent more money on courses, therapy, gym memberships or special diets. Health policy is being developed and implemented around these ideas.
While there is truth in the fact that lifestyle choices can lead to good health for some, this is only half the story. Human health, like everything else, is firmly rooted in material reality — and multiple factors, including environmental conditions, play a role in determining health outcomes.
More from this author

With fascists and their supporters cynically and falsely posing as ‘defenders of women,’ the left must take violence against women seriously and gain a better understanding of women’s oppression, warns HELEN O’CONNOR

As some celebrate a pay rise, outsourced, privatised workers face continued exploitation — ending this injustice by bringing them in-house must become a top priority for the labour movement, writes HELEN O’CONNOR

HELEN O’CONNOR sees a worrying trend of women exiting the labour movement in their thousands, and warns that if this tide is not stemmed with proper and effective action, it will only be to the benefit of the capitalist class

Far from being ‘more efficient’ and providing ‘choice,’ privateers taking over the public sector have worsened service delivery, and workers rights’ have been utterly compromised on the altar of corporate greed, warns HELEN O’CONNOR