Here in Wales prescription medicines are all free for everyone. We've had plenty of experience of both private and NHS hospital care over the past few years with our elderly parents and in each case the NHS has compared very favourably with the private provision - in fact, in the case of my father, the private hospital couldn't actually sort out what was wrong with him (it was a blood clotting problem) and had to send him to the NHS. Both my father and my father-in-law smacked their lips over the NHS hospital food (my father being used to more of a gourmet experience, my father-in-law not necessarily).
My only problem is that because my own GP believes in monitoring any potential health problem I seem to spend far too much time attending appointments to check I'm OK when I don't feel ill in the first place.

Anne