DDL thanks for your post. That's exactly what my husband is concerned about the quality of care and all the waiting lists for procedures. Having an American point of view is good.

I don't mean to be rude about anyone but I think the "American view" may be coloured by the lies told about the NHS by Obama's opponents when he was trying to improve the American system.

Death panels to decide who dies?

I don't have an 'American view' at all. I'm American. I live in England. I am a recipient of NHS healthcare. Boom. My view is based on reality - my reality, my personal experiences here with the NHS, and the reality of members of my family over here.

I don't even keep up with American politics any more.

Agree with you, however. The OP would be wise to heed only comments by those who live here (American, British, Chinese, Vulcan, etc.) and have firsthand experience of the NHS.

I guess you always have the option of paying for private healthcare.

Yes, and it's an excellent option and one that many people choose. If my temp job ever goes permanent, I'm sure I'll at least take a look at it.

I was just saying to my husband the other day that I would be interested to know just how many UK residents choose to purchase private healthcare as a supplement to the NHS. Suppose some are lucky in that their employer provide it or at least provide it at a reduced cost.

Ironic, really .... seems that those with the means - in the US and the UK - are the ones who end up getting the highest level of healthcare.

I guess I should have chosen my words a bit better. I'm just trying to compare the US health system to the UK NHS. From my husband's perspective he's not really open to the NHS due to what he's heard. The waiting lists to see specialists and for operations and the quality of care. I am looking at it from the perspective that it's so much more cheaper than the US health care system. As someone that has had a taste of both I do feel that the US health care system is over the top in how they take care of you. I mean throughout my pregnancy I had so many ultrasounds whereas in the UK my sister had just the bare minimum. I had more ultrasounds on my first pregnancy combined than she ever had on her 2 children. But at the end of the day I get a bill in the mail of $886 for the service.

And roughly how much does private health care cost out there?

Mine was simply a general comment - hence pointing out I wasn't being rude to anyone.
Nothing wrong with the words you chose.

Your husband's perspective was the point I was really trying to highlight. And I don't mean him personally. With all the publicity Obama's attempted reforms generated and how the big pharmaceutical companies rallied around to discredit universal care and politicians like Sarah Palin talked of 'death panels' and other falsehoods, while some people in the pharmaceutical industry were so disillusioned at the behaviour of their employers that they resigned....well it's hardly been an atmosphere conducive to fair comparisons.

With stuff like that going on, with the best will in the world, it's likely to be very hard for anyone to come to an (accurately) informed opinion about an alternative system.

Yes, I agree Obama's attempt hasn't really helped much. My husband's opinion stems from Canadian health care also. We live in Washington state very close to the Canadian border and he says he's heard of a lot of Canadians come to the States to get treatment as the hospitals are so full and the waiting lists are so long.

"he's heard the Canadian health care system isn't great"

"he's not really open to the NHS due to what he's heard"

"he says he's heard"

He seems to have heard a lot by the looks of it. I wonder who from? My own opinion? I'd swap the "for profit" U.S. system for the NHS any day. A health system that is more focused on patient care and the prevention of illness, rather than making a profit out of people being sick, is always going to be superior.
As for the quality of care, I've always found the NHS to be fine. The U.S. care may look flashier, because of their obsession with technology, but the actual level of knowledge and care is better in the U.K.
As for private insurance in the UK, the cost through BUPA for my wife and I was £170 per month (that was about 6 years ago). Of course, it will be higher now, but not that much. My last month's premium here was $880 and that's for a plan with a $5000 deductible. My wife can't even get insured.
The U.S. health system is rotten to the cure. The people who have "heard" all these things about countries with universal heath care don't help. Try getting informed. It does wonders. BTW, if you're wondering, I work in the health industry here in the U.S. I could tell you stories that would make your hair stand on end, including the one that lead me to telling them where to stick it last week. Unfortunately, it looks like that one is going to court so I can't really go into it.

My USC husband has lived in the UK for over 10 years and he's had no problems with the NHS. Bear in mind also that he has had periods in the US where he had no cover and was lucky that he did not need any treatment during those periods.

He sees the GP regularly for depression and takes tablets for it. He also had an emergency visit to hospital by ambulance once with an agonising kidney stone attack. His treatment was excellent, he was taken to Lewisham hospital and given blood tests and Xrays and then transfered by free non-emergency ambulance to Guys Hospital where he stayed two nights. He was so impressed that he kept his hospital gown as a souvenir lol.

Since his experiences with the NHS he has come around to abandoning his views that healthcare should be entitely private. He now favours a French style stystem where the state picks up most of the tab with the patient paying for the rest (via insurance or whatever). In France they typically pay 60-70% of the cost, but things like cancer, maternity etc are covered 100%.

Has he also "heard" that a lot of Americans head north of the border for medical treatment/prescriptions because they can't afford tp pay for it in the US? And has he also "heard" that people are actually healthier in the UK than the US according to a recently released study? And has he also "heard" that some people in the US have an infinite wait for treatment and/or are bankrupted by it?

It's hardly surprising that Obama's attempt hasn't helped much yet: its main provisions don't come into effect until 2014.

Yes according to an atlas of mine, average lifespan is 1 year more in UK than US! I think it's 78 US and 79 UK.

Almost everyone who posts on this site will have had firsthand experience of both the NHS and healthcare in the US.

Not necessarily - many of us have never even been to the US never mind experienced its healthcare system, we only have NHS experiences - which may not be perfect but I certainly couldn't grumble about them. My experiences in Australia have been less than positive, with one GP speaking so little English that I had to use her internet browser to show her pictures of eczema cos she didn't know what the word meant