[Osem]

On the other hand when there's no profit there's no incentive to keep costs down, in fact there's a tendency to overspend in order to justify current/higher budgets. You see that in local government when, come March every year, certain departments embark on a spending splurge in order to ensure the money they've been allocated is spent. Granted that's become less common in recent years due to the pressure on finances.

Neither system is perfect but it shouldn't be impossible to arrive at some form of compromise which takes the best of both. The NHS cannot continue to be run the way it is because it could swallow every penny of GDP and still need more. It's been tinkered with and allowed to develop in a largely ad-hoc manner for decades and putting that right will take decades, if anyone can grasp such a poisoned chalice.