State vs Private

I keep hearing the same old arguments about private health and private schooling:

Firstly that someone availing themselves of private health frees up appointments for someone using state health. 

This is not the case, as there is no such thing as a doctor who exclusively works in the private health sector; they're all NHS trained, NHS doctors who do private health work on the side. The time they spend enabling someone to jump the queue within the private sector means longer waiting lists in the NHS. Yes, someone is being taken out of the NHS waiting list, but at the tail end and not the front - those at the front will have to wait longer. Even at the tail of the list, there will be no difference from the position the private patient would have been in the NHS list.

Secondly, that applying VAT on private school fees will result in private schools closing down, putting an additional burden on the state sector.

Why would they close down? If any could not survive with VAT applied to their fees (and that would be only a small number), they could be taken over by the LEA and would simply become state schools, receiving more pupils from the overburdened state system. It's not as if the teachers would resign en masse and become unemployable. Shareholders would have to be compensated of course but, as charities (currently), they are not-for-profit, so any recompense would consist of only the fabric of the school. 

I don't buy the argument that it would result in a tax on aspiration. If that were the case, it could be made on any vatable aspirational purchase. Having fewer foreign holidays to be able to send your kid to public school is not a sacrifice, it's a lifestyle choice; not eating a meal in order that your kids can is a sacrifice.