Britain spends about 20% less than France on healthcare per capita. The British National Health Service is ruthlessly efficient, for better and for worse; it's really good at keeping people alive cheaply, but it's terrible at everything else. Efficiency inevitably means that resources are spread as thinly as possible, that equipment is used until it disintegrates, that hospitals are purely functional production lines for medical procedures.

British people have both a strong sentimental attachment to the NHS and a strong aversion to taxation. They're willing to overlook the flaws of the service if it means they don't have to pay more for it. I can't say it's an unreasonable position.

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.PCAP