"I believe it [13 billion pounds] should go into local authorities to deal with the very real issues in social care, because the problem we have got at the moment is people are in beds in the NHS who would be better off in social care beds," Truss said during a UK leadership debate, hosted in Birmingham by Times Radio on Tuesday night.
According to Truss, people working in the NHS say that the organization suffers from bureaucracy and a lack of local decision-making, rather than a lack of funding.
Truss’s opponent in the electoral race, former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, had previously implemented the National Insurance tax hike, out of which 13 billion pounds ($15 billion) were allocated for the NHS funding.
Truss and Sunak are the two final candidates in the premiership election race, which came after outgoing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation on July 7. The last round of voting in the Tories' leader race is taking place until early September. During the last round, all members of the party — around 200,000 people — will choose the winner from the two finalists. The voting will take place by mail. Johnson's successor will be announced on September 5.