Alberta, for example, is experimenting with private for-profit provision of publicly-funded services.
To date, for-profit provision in the UK has generally been of high quality.
The only other model with comparable success is not-for-profit provision by organisations with a charitable or service mission.
Unsurprisingly, the inquiry received plenty of evidence regarding the superiority of not-for-profit models, and the dangers of for-profit provision.
So, given that it's a force for public good, I think for-profit provision brings risks that are difficult to manage.
As for the crucial issue of for-profit provision, the commission acknowledges yet more evidence on the benefits of the not-for-profit model.
The PC was recently asked to examine the scope for competition and contestability (code words meaning for-profit provision) in human services in Australia.
First, we already have a degree of for-profit provision in the system – companies that provide software, and textbooks, and even agencies that provide temporary teaching staff.
Mr Romanow sees little benefit either in more private spending on medicine, or in private for-profit provision of care.Despite this, several provinces, notably Alberta, are already pushing ahead with for-profit diagnostic centres and clinics.
The giveaway sentence in the Policy Exchange report was: "If politicians are not prepared to embrace for-profit provision, is there a potential halfway house?" The report also describes its model as a social enterprise.
After decades of market-oriented reforms of human services, there is plenty of evidence to show that for-profit provision of such services is at best problematic, and at worst disastrous.
