https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan
NB I'm not claiming that the NHS is perfect but I suspect most of its problems actually stem from management consultants and politicians rather than medics or patients.
Having experienced healthcare in a few European countries (including the NHS), and having several doctor relatives, I don't think it's a good deal. The cost of healthcare is really high, you pay a lot of taxes, the hospitals are subpar quality, you have to queue / wait for hours / days / weeks / months and the service provided is rationed. The government decide which tests you get to do according to their playbook. Basically if you want something done quickly you need to pay - but you're already paying for public health in taxes. My doctor relatives are often skeptical of the the government provided guidelines on how to treat people, but they still follow them because if you don't you'll be liable for whatever happens.
The most recent and incredible case is the use of corticosteroids for covid patients. My doctor relative and colleagues wanted to use them in some cases but they were told not to and to follow the guidelines. Now that corticosteroids are being recommended, they've been told to don't talk to the newspapers, because they fear people thinking it was a state sanctioned mass murder.
Some more examples of how public health care sucks in everyday life:
- I had an unbearable stomach pain and after self diagnosing myself a range of potential issues (some of which needed tests to be proven) I went to the hospital. At the time I was switching jobs so I didn't have private insurance setup. After waiting for 4hrs the doctor told me that because I was under 40 I wouldn't get any tests done and she told me to go and buy some stomach medicines. The pain was unbearable, so I setup my private insurance, did some test and I ended up having a stomach ulcer which needed surgical treatment. So much for public health care, I could have died.
- My wife replaced teeth fillings via NHS (it's "free" for new moms), we thought it was something simple enough that we wouldn't have problems. So we waited for months for an appointment and got it done. After a couple of weeks the filling fell off - and the same thing repeated three times. Eventually we went back to our usual dentist and she didn't have problems with her new filling.
As for everything else - I literally have no complaints about the treatment anyone in our family has had from the NHS. Of course, other people will have had bad experiences - that is inevitable with something the size of the NHS but I don't.
NB We have neighbours who are NHS doctors who complain about the costs of the German healthcare system - everybody has some problems!
Edit: About a month ago, on a Sunday, my wife got what appeared to be an insect bite that had become infected. She phoned NHS 24, spoke to someone and had to wait for an hour for a nurse to phone back. The nurse said it was best to play safe and arranged a hospital appointment for about 7pm. I drove her to the appointment and she was in, examined by a doctor and out again in about 30 minutes with a pack of antibiotics to take.
Cost: £0 (prescriptions are free in Scotland).
That is pretty typical of my experience of the NHS.
Here you basically have to ask your insurer if they will pay for damn near everything and record the interaction ID otherwise you're getting a supprise bill which are supposedly banned.
Had to deal with this in the last week it is infuriating wasting so much time on hold or navigating through a phone tree.
We should really be making a yellow vest style movement against this just and burn the whole healthcare system down. Unless you work for a select few companies or have the medicaid it's a nightmare to deal with.
Also the problem is we don't give a damn about preventative care and nutrition so you end up with a majority overweight/obese population that you could have prevented with a fraction of the cost in preventative care.