From where I sit - in the UK - the whole business seems weird.

All my life I've paid a National Insurance contribution from my salary. And all my life I've had nearly free treatment from the UK's National Health Service - I say "nearly" because, until I retired, I had to pay nominal, standard sums for prescribed medicines. Since retirement, I don't pay NI contributions and all my prescriptions, such as they are, are completely free. I'm guessing the latter is the equivalent of US Medicare (correct me if I'm wrong). My friend Chris recently broke his shoulder badly. Within 1 day it was checked, operated on by the best surgeon in the local hospital - and is now healed beautifully. All for free and without questions of any kind.

We've been used to this system all our lives, and it's superb, in the main. (The problem is, it's also at the mercy of greedy, penny-pinching, critical governments who constantly interfere and are always on the edge of privatising this and that.) But what on earth is wrong with the principle? It's painless; it's part of our system; and we've all lived with it for over 60 years. Is the health of a nation not worth paying for?