"That comment has caused a minor buzz in the U.S., as have remarks by two British women featured in a video made by the lobbying group Conservatives for Patients' Rights, which opposes Obama's healthcare proposals.
Both women are seen criticizing the NHS for its policies on cancer treatment; one says that not getting a Pap smear in time signed her "death warrant." But the two women have told the British media that they were misled into thinking they were being interviewed for a documentary on healthcare reform, not a political attack ad.
Kate Spall, whose mother died of kidney cancer while awaiting treatment, said she was appalled by how her words were being used by the lobbying group.
"I feel I was duped," she told The Times of London. "The irony is that I campaign for exactly the people that socialized healthcare supports. I would not align myself with this group at all."
In addition to defending the NHS from conservative critics in the U.S., some in Britain have now gone on the offensive, expressing incredulity that the U.S. boasts of being a superpower while leaving tens of millions of its people uninsured.
"The United States lies between Costa Rica and Slovenia in the World Health Organization's ranking of health-care systems . . . which puts them in 37th place," Keith Hopcroft, a doctor, wrote in The Sun's commentary piece. "The U.K.? 18th. I rest my doctor's case."