US private health companies such as Centene (Operose) and UnitedHealth (Optum Health) offer publicly funded health plans in the US, and already operate in the NHS. After a takeover earlier this year, Centene became one of the largest primary care providers in England, with 58 practices and more than 500,000 patients. Within weeks of the deal, Samantha Jones, the CEO of Centene in the UK, had resigned and was appointed Boris Johnson’s health adviser. UnitedHealth has received a range of NHS contracts for more than a decade, and in 2019 Optum was one of two companies awarded a four-year prescribing support contract up to £100m. The chief executive of NHS England was until recently Simon Stevens, the former vice-president of UnitedHealth. Stevens became a peer this year, and the bill is his brainchild.