Quote Originally Posted by delmbox View Post
They did, 21 times, and Churchill was the PM when it came out in 1942 and was very non committal in his reaction to it, understandable perhaps because he had other things on his mind at the time but he was definitely not one of the "prime movers"

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...built-the-nhs/

https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk...welfare-state/
And in 1951 Winston Churchill's Tory government introduced prescription charges (they couldn't wait!).

It should be noted though that three years after the formation of the NHS, Bevan resigned after the introduction of fees for dentures, dental care, and glasses. There's no doubt that the guy was instrumental in the formation of and the principles of the NHS. If Atlee hadn't had won, there's no way the Tories would have implemented it no matter the cross-party consensus that something urgent re. the nation's health needed to be done post-WWII.