The paper examines the conception, implementation and abolition of the GP fundholding scheme, all within 10 years, for evidence of a changed style of health care policy-making. A health care policy community, in which the interests of the medical profession were prominent, existed between 1948 and the mid-1980s. The paper highlights the important factors in the breakdown of the policy community and traces the effect through to the negotiation, implementation and abolition of the GP fundholding scheme. In particular, the role of evidence in health care policy-making has changed significantly. A consequence of the collapse of the policy community has been that a 'folk psychology' rather than evaluative evidence has guided some aspects of health care policy since the 1990s.