What can you tell us Yanks about Healthcare in the UK

Well done America, and well done Barack Obama.

What did Bush or Bliar leave their countires? War and pointless death.

Obama will leave his country a system by which MILLIONS will now be insured, and will be able to get the healhcare they didn't have access to previously. It still has to get through the Senate, but I think/hope it will.

I used to live in America, and I know many people that "can't afford to get sick".

On a different note, I had to quote BobbinBird, as what he had to say about his experience with the NHS, encapsulates my adoration of that establishment.

I am extremely grateful for the NHS. Here's why....

I was born with a severe spinal curvature. I was seen at once by a top consultant in the best orthopaedic hospital in the country, and I remained under his care until he retired when I was 24. .....I had more surgery when I was 18 (two more surgeries to fuse my lumbar spine and break my ribcage and reset it into a more normal looking shape), 25 (another ribcage surgery, as they decided they could make it look even better) and finally a surgery in May this year to extend my fusion to L4.

....All of my treatment has been free.

I have friends who were also born with spinal curvatures, in countries where the treatment wasn't freely available. They're massively deformed now and have to use oxygen to help them breathe because their lungs are being crushed. It's sobering, they actually started out with curves much smaller than mine.

...Bluequinn (you deserve to be repped my brother) bought me a bike and taught me to cycle last year (it wasn't possible for me to have learned as a kid, due to the braces and plaster casts) and now I absolutely love it... My point is that without the NHS I probably wouldn't be anywhere near as fit as I am now, and my quality of life would be in the shitter.