As we know the NHS was founded in 1948 and provides 'free at the point of care' healthcare to the whole population of the UK. As an English person who works for the NHS I'm very proud of the system we have, but I don't know all that much about what things were like before the NHS. How did payment work? Insurance or just bills? Who owned the hospitals? Could families afford it? How about the poor? Thanks in advance!
There was a healthcare system but it was a hodge podge of different systems with major gaps.
From 1911 there was a system of National Health Insurance. Workers and employers paid into it and the worker received cash benefit if they needed treatment. The system was administered by insurance societies. Doctors who were on a 'panel' delivered treatment for a capitation fee.
Hospitals were divided into local authority run or private (called "voluntary"). These did charge but had special provisions for the poor. By the 1930s the Voluntary system was in financial trouble. It depended on subscribers and could no longer keep up with medical inflation.
The local authorities provided a variety of public health services.
The biggest holes in the system were hospitals and for the families of workers. In both cases people bought additional insurance or relied on savings or charity. A serious illness could be a serious problem.
Many people expected that the NHS would expand the insurance and local authority hospital systems. Instead, the Labour government decided on a radical reconstruction of the whole system.