It's not stupid if you realise that the government's goal is not to create an NHS which is more efficient or cost effective. Their goal is to structure the NHS in such a way as to make gradual privatisation easier, spinning off one function after another to private concerns. It will make the NHS more expensive, as private healthcare companies (as evidenced from America) like to make money, and lots of it. As the NHS gets more expensive because of this, the drumbeat will mount that it's all too expensive for the state to support and little by little the burden of paying for it will be transferred to individuals through extra insurance. Mandatory insurance of course. Oh, and when this happens, don't expect to get a tax rebate because you're now contributing more. That's not how it works.

At the end of the day, the function of a conservative government is to protect the assets of the asset-owning classes, and to be enablers of private enterprise - or to put it another way, to manoeuvre the public into positions where they have no choice but to be ripped off by private enterprises. The easiest way to do this is to remove state support and/or price control from vital things like health. It also works for energy, water supply and other things that we can't live without.

Hey, this is all about freedom and choice right? So if you don't like it just choose not to get sick. Whiners.