t.nie
Patience Tester
Some are northerners and some are southerners, and as you know it's like 2 different countries in the way they think. Many in the UK now complain about NHS with just the things you commented on
(packed 1950's style green drab paint/linoleum hallways hospital bustling with people. NHS being downtrodden, going broke.) Their issue with this is because of the cut backs for the NHS by the Tories (conservatives) it's the age old story, the rich get richer the working class gets screwed. It has many of my friends very upset.
The ultimate Tory (conservatives) goal is to make people in the UK hate the NHS (which they used to love when it was properly funded and the service was good) so it can be sold off to private investors who can turn it all into another business they can make a ton of money out of.
Best way to do that is to gut the funding so it can't deliver. We see the same thing here in the USA with the VA system. It's been so underfunded and gutted for so many years that now veterans are not getting the treatment and care they earned. So the answer?
Give out a card that authorizes vets to go to any private provider who can then BILL the VA for their services. Talk about a recipe for fraud, overcharging and abuse, this is it. And by underfunding a health care system it is inevitable it will fail to deliver. But rest assured the big healthcare providers are wringing their hands with glee at all the new "customers" they just got gifted.
I think it boils down to what do you want from your health care "system?" Are you a patient who just wants good quality healthcare in a timely manner at a price that doesn't require you pledging your income for the rest of you life to paying it off, or are you a person who wants to make a lot of money out of other people's disease and misfortune? Because the goal of your health care system determines the approach and I don't think you can have big profits and a good system without it costing everyone a fortune.
Not sure that health care should be treated as a "market" the same as any other. It's not like health care is optional when you're sick.