Because they aren't aware of the reality of what it truly is.
It's not "fair" -- in the sense that everybody gets the same poor service. You can bet that Gordon Brown and Tony Blair did not go to Maidstone for their treatment.
It's not "effective" -- for the very reason that the reporter identifies: each new patient is a cost, each death an administrative convenience.
Nonetheless, it is damnably expensive. Even though it is "free"...
And although of course Britons can choose to gain care outside of the NHS system, the mere fact that it exists at all raises their costs exponentially....people pay once via their taxes and then again if they want to go outside the system and actually gain quality care.
‘And although of course Britons can choose to gain care outside of the NHS system, the mere fact that it exists at all raises their costs exponentially....people pay once via their taxes and then again if they want to go outside the system and actually gain quality care.’
True, though I now pay slightly less per year living in England for both NHS and private healthcare than I used to pay for my private healthcare when I lived in America. This of course is nothing to do with any inherent efficiency present in the NHS and everything to do with the appallingly inflated prices for healthcare in the US.