Yaron Brook, at Cambridge Union, Advocates Privatizing Health Care

For decades the British National Health Service (NHS) has been held up as proof that “socialized medicine works.” But that narrative is unraveling. Long waiting times, inadequate medical care, and demoralized doctors and nurses have left the NHS in crisis, prompting the British public to confront a once-unthinkable question: “Is it time to privatize the NHS?”

“Yes!” answered Yaron Brook, in front of a British audience at the famed Cambridge Union, one of the most prestigious forums for public debate in the world. While the debate featured opponents who pointed to flaws in the quasi-public American health care system as reasons not to privatize, Brook stood out for his uncompromising moral defense of full privatization.

Brook set the record straight. “If you decide to privatize the NHS, you don’t do the American system. It is way too socialized!” he explained. The audience responded in disbelief.                                

Watch Yaron Brook on a major platform for public discourse boldly defend an unpopular yet principled position: that socialized medicine doesn’t work and that true medical progress requires freedom.

This debate, originally recorded on November 28, 2024, was released on YouTube on January 5, 2025. Listen here for the full debate.