Here's a piece in today's Guardian by an American mother living in England, with a moving tribute to the way NHS provision helped the family during her young sons terminal illness.

A precious provision:

"...I'm from the US, where the possibility of receiving such comprehensive and hassle-free care is a pipedream.

It's difficult to say how different our experience would have been had we lived in the US...For most of Dill's life I was a member of an internet support group, made up of some 200 families around the world with Dill's condition. US members had a unique theme, and it was all about insurance.

Their sometimes desperate, usually middle-of-the-night messages focused on who was covered for what, how to work the system, how to cope when you had no insurance, how to get the piece of equipment that would greatly enhance your child's quality of life. For those who could get ample coverage, the form-filling was soul destroying. Many families had to routinely do fundraising. At least one of the families was trying to move to Britain specifically for the healthcare...."