Cabinet minister Pat McFadden has suggested the NHS wouldn’t be able to immediately fund assisted deaths due to the burden it will put on the taxpayers’ expense.
Mr McFadden said it was “right” to consider whether terminally ill adults seeking to end their lives should cover their costs.
In a second reading vote last week, MPs passed the assisted dying Bill with 330 in favour and 275 against. It will give terminally ill adults with less than six months to live a choice to take their own lives with medical supervision.
However, campaigners are concerned about the cost of assisted death at the NHS’s expense. Health secretary Wes Streeting, who voted against the Bill after reviewing the current state of palliative care, has already asked his department to look at what spending would be required at the taxpayers’ expense.
The chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden refused to say if the plans would be fully funded through government spending if it passed through Parliament. He told the Times Radio: “All of that will be considered during the committee stage.
“The government will have to look at the Bill much more seriously now that it’s been passed by Parliament.
“This was a private member’s Bill, remember, not a government bill. But it’s for the government to enact the will of Parliament if this Bill goes through all those other stages that I said.”
Asked if patients may have to pay for an assisted death, Mr McFadden said: “Look, I think all that still has to be considered. As you know, people currently have to pay for this themselves if they go to Switzerland.
“So all those questions of costs, safeguards, all the issues that have been raised have to be considered during the committee stage, the clause-by-clause examination of the Bill.
“And that’s the right way to do it because it’s a huge change. And you could see that on the faces of the MPs who are voting for it or against it on Friday.”
As it will go through further scrutiny and votes in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, there won’t be any change in the laws until next year at the earliest.
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