The National Health Service in England1

This chapter explains how it can argued that the larger the investment by any society in ‘individualism’, the more may ‘health consciousness’ spread. Similarly, the limits to what is personally conceived to be tolerable in feelings of bad health or inadequate function may also rise. And as society becomes more health conscious (in the sense of more individuals becoming aware of the higher standards expected of them) the more may each individual become dependent, or at least feel dependent, in an age of scientific medicine, on other individuals — and on resources external to themselves for the achievement of good health.