http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/19/nhs_smart_idcard/
John Lettice
"The question of whether or not the UK national ID card will be required for access to health care is a fascinating one because, although the answer is almost certainly yes, nobody in government is prepared to say so at this juncture and risk general outcry. Instead we have a drip, drip of hints, suggestions and signals that will (they hope) lead us to a point where the ID card somehow, sort of, becomes the obvious and inevitable answer to everybody's healthcare problems.
The process, whereby the Home Office's cunning plan for a universal ID system efficacious in every way slowly subverts every other form of ID, could be thought of as a sort of Invasion of the ID Snatchers."<
