You have heard stories about the U.K which are gross exaggerations.We hear stories about the U.S where people are shown living in tents because they have had to pay for urgent life saving health care. I just pray that is a gross exaggeration.
I cannot think who you saw in front of a stone building. It certainly would not have been anyone from any recognised British Political Party. They would not dare, as Neil said,it would be political suicide in the U.K.

cancer waiting times for the NHS are here :

http://www.performance.doh.gov.uk/ca...08/q3/eng.html

As you can see 99.8% of urgent referalls are seen by a specialist within 14 days.

The NHS has limited funds and some drugs are considered too expensive and not "cost efficient". I know of no proven life saving drug that is not available due to cost.

This must be similar to your system where your insurance company, presumably, has less money than the UK Government and as a result may not offer certain very expensive treatments where the benefit is not conclusive.

We hear a lot of scare stories about US medical care such as road accident victims being turned away from hospitals because they are not suitably insured and to be honest I do not know where fiction starts and ends. I do know that judging by the level of political and patient "noise" the US healthcare system generates that it is far from perfect and you have a number of your own problems to solve.

Take care,
Neil.

I think the US System is the best in the world, IF you can access it. There are those for whatever reason either can't or choose not to.
I don't know w here the truth lies. I suppose the truth lies between the two extremes. It is a very complex subject that is very difficult to get ones "head around".

i know I do not want our government taking an active role in running my healthcare.

Charlie

I have had to smile to myself as we are all so loyal to our respective countries and that is as it should be. I happen to think our system is one of the best in the world, if not the best because everyone can access it.

Funnily enough I have just had a phone calll from my sister in law who was moaning about the local hospital.You know why? No complaints about the fact that her husband had been seen very quickly and efficiently by a consultant at the hospital, but because he had had to pay for parking in the hospital car park.No pleasing some people.

"i know I do not want our government taking an active role in running my healthcare".

Spoken as I would expect of an American. I am glad to see you retain your distrust of centralised administration and the value for money of state taxation. I always think of your society as "sink or swim", whereas European social models tend to reward "failure" through handouts too readily. I would be interested in the number of "aliens" the NHS treats versus the US healthcare system. I suspect we would be treating more despite the difference in GDP.

Neil.

P.S. Last time I was in the US the biggest disappointment I had was the number of "fuel efficient" Jap small sedans you guys drove. Come on, where are the Thunderbirds, Camero Z28 and 6 litre Firebirds I saw Burt Reynolds drive in the movies.

Believe me your gas is cheap compared to ours so I can only believe you are being tight

Oh Neil, Please! Take a look at the two thousand mile border we share with a third world country: Mexico. A country whose government writes official publications on how to cross the border. I bet my state, Arizona, treats more "aliens" than the NHS.

i used to own a Z-28 CAmaro, a lady turned in front of me in a CAdillac...scratch one Z-28. I drive a Chevy Suburban now. I carries all 7 of us in comfort and has a Vortec 350 V8. It weighs 5000lbs and will cruise effortlessly at 85 MPH all day long. My brother had a restored 65 Corvette for a lot of years. It go so restored it wound up being trailered to Corvette shows, he got tired of it and sold it and got into the John Deere tractor restoring business. He has 60 JD's and 20 other makes. HE drives a 600 hp Cummins diesel powered pickup truck now.
I have all the tools etc. to restore cars if I can ever get my shoulders fixed, I will build a 1950 Ford, orr some sort of muscle car.

IS RedBull or Brawn going to ttake the title this year?? Honda's decision to get out of F1 was certainly ill-timed.........

Charlie

cost to the UK $ 328 million

cost to America $ 1000 million to $ 5000 million

US GDP is seven times that of the UK so pro rater we come in at approx $ 2,500 million. Remember we get a lot of Eastern Europeans (non EU) and Indian sub continent.

I accept my initial statement was wrong, it just seems like we pay out to everyone due to their "human rights". Even failed asylum seekers are eligible for NHS care prior to deportation and believe me it is tough to fail to immigrate to the UK. We even had a bunch of guys fake a plane hi jack to land in the UK, then they claimed asylum and were allowed to stay.

Come the revolution, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown will be first up against the wall

Take care,
Neil.

Befuddled , she slithers among the patriotic chest bumping to. ask a few questions

is it all about numbers? is it a matter of shifting and how accountable is the govnt to provide?


Ironically. will we still be paying higher taxes..0f course with the screw sneaking up on the middle class?

teach me about it please and thank you.
p

editing to add that this is incomplete. actually i mean in the first question - are there too many of us?

and in the second, i didn't add the complete thought - meant to explain the irony and that would be if it all comes out the same....but who is in charge?

recalling the recent holiday, but think it's meaning is archaic. need a new holiday celebrating other things...

zzz