The UK health service might be struggling in some things - but you can be sure that if you are in a RTA, or you have a sudden fainting fit, someone will diall 999 (note the number) and there will be an ambulance sent with people who can help there and then, and you will most likely be taken to hospital and whatever can be done will be done - from giving you a cup of tea and a biscuit whilst someone is found to take you home to gallons of blood transfusions and hours in the operating theatre, with no thought of who is paying.

My children were checked regularly throughout their first years of life, they were give innoculations agaist common diseases, free dental care, free eye tests - one had a minor operation on his hand to remove a 'trigger' the other had a slight twist in a foot and had it corrected. There was no charge for the treatment.

We can sometimes be bewildered by how the US organises the health care of its citisens and wonder why the population does not demand that the system is changed so that those who are too poor or too ill to buy the care they need are not a threat to the ordinary man in the street.

Health care should not be a matter for the individual, because it affects everyone.

A couple of simplistic illustrations;

The man who should be taking medication for his heart condition but loses his job and can no longer have health insurance could be driving his car, fall unconscious and wipe out - anyone's family. There could be someone at the supermarket checkout feeling ill, but has got to work, they can't afford to go to the doctor, you can't protect your child, your partner or yourself from being infected too. You can only obtain the help for your family once the worst has already happened.

Personally I prefer to fund free health care for everyone on the basis that treatment for anyone who needs it could avert huge problems for me.