Not true. You've postulated a false dichotomy. There is nothing that says health care must only be paid either by insurance or the government. What's wrong with simply paying it herself? This is the cost of a small car. First she should have that much in savings, and if she doesn't then I can't work up much sympathy for her. If I had the choice of either having to come up with the money or dying, I'd figure out some way to get the $$$s together.
Then there is "medical tourism." She could go to some place like India where the health care is probobly better than in the UK and the prices cheaper.
The government has assumed responsibility for the lives of their people. And over the years, the public has yielded to that mentality. They don't know any other way... they make no other plans. They don't think they need to. They have inordinate waits to get care? People are resigned to this. Cancer care is delayed - resulting in more deaths? People are resigned to the de facto system in place.
Most people over there don't do more because they don't have to... because they have been conditioned to expect little and take only what they're given. It's a total complacency and mind-numbing acquiescence that has taken place over the years. The Brits have become the blobs pictured in the WALL-E movie. It's the result of socialism gone amok.
It's a picture of our future under Obama/Romneycare.