What can you tell us Yanks about Healthcare in the UK

By your logic, ANY public or government subsidised service could (and should?) be replaced by market-driven enterprise. Because the market always makes things better no?

[/I]EDIT: Actually, with a moment's pause for thought, I really cannot envisage a situation where a troops-on-the-ground Army would 'save' me from imminent danger. No one is going to invade the UK with massed ranks of uniformed bodies. So yes, in many ways we don't need the Armed Forces to continue in their current incarnation (assuming we are looking to save money for UK taxpayers and have no far-reaching foreign policy desires that involve 'keeping the peace' in oil rich countries).

The UN? Yes please.

just stopped pissing myself laughing at the thought of the UN saving anyone. Maybe you feel safe because you have a professional army defending you (and the fact that we are ultimately defended by the yanks) and yep sure the world is changing but it would be a foolish man that gave up our army in its current incarnation.

but you are right we are digressing. My love of the market doesn't spread to all areas. every nation decides what system is best for different aspects of its society. As far as i'm concerned it's time for our health system to move away from free health care for all on the point of entry.

As it happens the US system of health is better than ours and not restricted to rationing. The American mission is to maximise life regardless of cost. The NHS is trying to make maximum cost effective use of the resources at it's disposal.
Also absolutely no citizen is denied healthcare in the states (it is illegal to refuse treatment in all 50 states). There is much less queueing. The US have much greater cancer survival rates and there is far more money spent on 'the end of life' care. it could be argued that the American system far from being cruel , is too kind.
Americans seem to me to be deciding whether or not they want to impose rationing. Economically Americans have a problem. Healthcare spending is growing faster than GDP. In anyones book that simply spells trouble.

But as i said earlier, who cares what the Americans do? Culturally they are able to understand that you are born and it is up to you to make what you can of your life. If you want the best healthcare , buy the best insurance and that might involve working hard and achieving rather than relying on richer members of society paying for you. This is a nation of people who historically left tyranny to come to the land of the free in an attempt to live their lives unfettered by govt bureaucracy and meddling (shame about the genocide of the native americans and the influence of religion). I don't hear too many Americans protesting about the state of their healthcare system considering it is supposed to be so appalling according to the left wing in this country.
In the UK we need some new ideas because the NHS can't remain sacrosanct forever. It's expensive and it doesn't deliver the best healthcare. More and more people are getting tired of paying for people who can't be bothered (yep you read that correctly) to work or take responsibility for their health.

Originally i said that it was a mildly interesting thread and this upset some people. Sure it was a bit patronising but to be honest , after reading it all, it is a pretty fair assessment. Hladik wrote a lot of detailed stuff about the ins and outs of the administrative world of the NHS and how cruel it is that people with money should be able to pay for better and quicker care(welcome to the real world) . Then there was a spattering of socialist gumpf as the left wingers talked about how awful private markets are and how life is so much bettter with the NHS (yawn) describing it as a 'free' service while failing to realise that without a market economy producing profits then we would be stuck with truly socialist system of healthcare i.e. none