Labour’s UK care spokesperson Stephen Kinnock said the comments were confirmation that Reform “would look to charge patients for their healthcare”.
Farage called for a debate on an insurance-based system when he was leader of UKIP back in 2015.
But Reform’s 2024 general election promised an NHS free at the point of use alongside “major reforms”.
In January this year, in a separate interview with LBC, he was asked if he was open to a “French-style insurance model for the NHS”.
He replied that he did not want to “absolutely mimic the French system, but let’s have a deeper broader thing”.
He added “if we could get a more efficient better funding model, provided we give free care at the point of delivery, I am prepared to consider anything”.
State healthcare in France is not generally free – costs are covered by a combination of statutory insurance funded through the tax system, supplementary private insurance and patients contributing through co-payments.
If any proposals to change the NHS funding model were to emerge they would be more likely in the party’s manifesto for the next UK general election, expected in 2029.