NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

This week, the United Kingdom (UK) has made the unprecedented move of leaving the European Union (EU), an economic and political union of 28 member countries. After a close result, the Leave campaign won the referendum with 52% of the votes compared to 48% for the Remain campaign, with a 72.2% voter turnout.

As the country now grapples to come to terms with the consequences of this election, this rejection of EU membership threatens to have a great impact on the health of people both within the UK as well as internationally.

Immigration and Healthcare — UK health system financing is provided through central taxation to the National Health Service (NHS). Increasingly, many are finding that the NHS is struggling to cope with the demands of the UK population, and questions arise regarding the source of this strain.