I am getting irritated by the Americans criticising the NHS. They see it, of course, as a socialist scheme, and thus innately evil. They seem to think that it does not work, and that it fails many people. while anyone would admit it has it’s faults, as a disabled person I know beyond doubt that the nhs is a far better system than the draconian, barbaric system in America. In the states, if you cannot afford medical insurance, you’re screwed; you can only hope for second rate medical aid. At least here, you get the same high standard of care regardless of wealth. How the Americans can claim that a system where the rich can live comfortably while the poor die is better than a system where everyone is treated equally is beyond me. And as for certain recent comments about professor hawking, it is only in Britain that he could have survived. were he american and poor, it would have been a great loss to cosmology.