"You can wait four hours in line in a doctor's office for basic treatment! You can wait months or years for necessary surgery! And the treatment, if you can get it, is far below American standards. And you have no control over who treats you!""

The thing about having no control over who treats you: from what I remnember, isn't that how an HMO works?

One of the things that's probably evident from this thread so far is that, in the UK, it really depends on where you live whether you experience the shortcomings of the NHS or not.

Liz says she has had the 4 hour wait for basic care, but I believe she lives in London. I've lived in villages for most of my time here, and I have to say the care I've received has been first class. From having my caesarean when my daughter was born to a breast cancer scare last year, I've never been left feeling I could have received better care if I'd been paying for it. In fact, when it came to the breast cancer, my doctor said to me, "Don't be tempted to go private - this is one of the things the NHS does better than anyone." He was right. I was on holiday in Greece when i found my lump, and rang my doctor for an appointment while I was still over there. I went in the day after I got back, and had been fast-tracked into the specialist clinic within a few days. At the clinic they treated me with kindness and respect and informed me exactly what was going to happen. Everything was there in one place - it wasn't a case of going here on this day for one test and there on another day for the next one - they did all the tests on the day, and even analysed the results while I was there - I was given the all-clear within a couple of hours of arrival.

Brilliant.