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@D._Generate
I'm a Yank and I live in London. I've seen both sides. I also work with a lot of pharmaceutical companies so I have more than a passing acquaintance with the different systems.
I freely admit, I bring a lot of personal bias into these type of debates. My mother lives in the States and has leukemia. She couldn't get the treatment that she needs if she didn't have private healthcare. It's massively expensive and is something she feels incredibly guilty about. I'm sure her healthcare insurance would love to drop her as she is massively expensive to them but she has the policy and is guaranteed the treatments.
If her situation in the States was different she might not be so lucky. If she hadn't had the insurance first she might find she was shit out of luck.
However, if she lived in the UK she might be shit out of luck depending on her post code. She is far enough advanced now that she'd be shit out of luck regardless of where she lives because NICE has deemed her current treatment isn't cost effective.
So based on that, my personal biases and everything I have seen; both systems are far from perfect. But I do prefer a system that offers a chance because there are many players to one that has to rule the cost effectiveness of everything for everyone because they are the only player.
This is just my two pence. I'm not interested in debating I'm just a tad bit drunk and rose to the bait when I saw this thread.