The NHS launders money the indebted government doesn’t have into terrible health outcomes. This feels like a benefit because it conceals from patients the true cost of their care, while its shortcomings relative to other countries are noticeable only to policy nerds. That’s how most of Europe’s welfare states work.

The UK has less debt than the US and much better average health outcomes, while spending less on health per capita. This is just intellectually dishonest framing of how welfare systems work, ironically in a piece about comparative poverty.