[bullseyebarb]

Hey, Jambutty - You're busy today! The problem with "public services" such as the NHS is that the public isn't actually involved. Once you have a third party payer in the equation, such as the government using tax money as a funding mechanism, the consumers have no control at all. Someone else is making healthcare decisions for you - i.e., what you can have, how much of it you can have, when you can have it and, yes, even whether you can have it at all. I much prefer a true free market approach with no government involvement whatsoever. The government does nothing well and always brings along with it a vast bureaucracy, which sucks up valuable resources. Prices are manipulated and shortages inevitable. Having lived under both systems, I vastly prefer the free market. It's a good, efficient, flexible system here - despite what you may have heard or read.