To be sure, is it not their job, at present, to 'cock it all up' such that the next government has as hard as possible a job to 'fix' it within their time window?
I ask in earnest; a pal suggested it to me as a working theory, and I found it hard to disagree with.
My own feeling leans toward both parties wanting rid of the #NHS (in it's current form), but accepting that to declare such would be #political suicide. As a public we so often clamour for the notion of telling truth to power, and are perhaps blind to the possibility that we are the power who don't like hearing the truth.
I'm a student of neither economics nor politics, so I'd be curious if you had any thoughts.