Why the great fear having to pay something for everything? Why is it wrong to pay a nominal ammount each time we access the system? We can even exclude vulnerable people, such as children and OAPs, from having to pay, though personally I think there is some value in giving people greater 'ownership' of their health by charging them something. I certainly don't see it as the start of the slippery slope to a fully privatised healthcare system. It will still be funded by direct taxation. You can't compare a bill for tens of thousands of pounds for injuries sustained in a traffic accident, including a month on Intensive care, on one hand, with a bill for £15 for calling an ambulance on the other. In fact, certainly until the last few years, you would get billed for calling an ambulance for an RTA even in the UK. I'm a diet controlled diabetic. I get a prescription for blood testing strips to measure the sugar in my blood. If I was on medication I would get them free. As I'm not I have to pay the prescription charge of (I think) £6.40. Often I'm asked by the pharmacist why I'm paying if I'm a diabetic. When I explain they always seem to feel it's unfair and clearly expect me to feel the same. The costs of the strips come to £60, and I pay £6.40. To be honest I think I get a bloody good deal. All I'm suggesting is that many of the problems of the NHS come from a 'something for nothing' mentality. We don't feel we've paid for the NHS, because it's paid for out of our general taxation, and we've been made to feel that it's a 'human right' to get free health care when ever we need it. We even despise overseas health care systems which don't recognise this 'human right', even when they actually deliver better health care than the Nash. We use the bogeyman of America anytime anybody suggests any fees at all, forgetting that most European countries maintain mixed healthcare systems which provide a better model for reform. James