The nation's love affair with the National Health Service is an enduring, if somewhat costly, adoration and its plans for the future show no sign of pulling back on the purse strings.

At first glance, the launch this week of the NHS 10-year plan offered an eye-catching glimpse of the future, promising policies to protect the nation from cradle to grave – a grave that it pledges will be further away as it stretches the boundaries of longevity.