One of the benefits of living in a country with a national health care system is that you don’t have to worry about such things as which hospital to go to, what is covered by the system, what payments you have to make, whether you can afford treatement or not, which hospital you go to, what treatments you have… etc.

Some local schemes and employer schemes, like Blue Advantage, do provide care, but it still shocks me that the UK provides more affordable care (courtesy of taxation) to more people, in more ways, with less waste than the US system.

While individual states, companies, and HMOs may excel, … millions of people still have no cover for medical emergencies. In a modern economy, with basic educational services, local services, etc., it seems odd that 40-million people have no access to healthcare.

This puts the US at odds with much of the western world, and quite a few developing countries, too.