Free Private Healthcare???

According to the Times, patients who have waited over 18 weeks for treatment will now legally be allowed private treatment for free.

Source

I can’t believe that Labour has introduced it, especially since it was Labour who created the NHS all those years ago.

This is going to be a very expensive venture, as private healthcare doesn’t come cheap. Both parties are going to cut budget growth for the NHS anyway; it seems obvious therefore that paying large fees to private companies will come at the expense of NHS services. They would surely be better off putting the money that this will cost towards increasing the quality and speed of NHS treatment. I know the government has been going choice-crazy recently (schools etc.), but this is likely to be too far for many people.

The other problem is that once it is free it's no longer private healthcare is it... It's effectively healthcare that has been contracted out by the public, which shouldn't be what the NHS is about, in my opinion.

The Conservatives plan to scrap all targets for the NHS when they get into power. Again, what is wrong with these people? Maybe Labour has introduced too much in the way of targets and beaurocracy across all sectors, but getting rid of all of them?
The political system at the moment is ridiculous. Both main parties appear to be scrapping over who looks best to voters, but they don’t seem to have thought any of this stuff through properly.