46 million Americans apparently don't have health insurance - that's around 3/4ths the population of the UK. And I'm guessing most aren't uninsured because they're so rich they can pay for each procedure.... Must be a bummer for those who do pay, to carry the non-payers. I think, with regards to your last sentence (which I've been trying to get my head around and address for some minutes now), it's more that faced with such huge fees, I may have tried to ignore a health problem rather than run the risk of debt, thus possibly allowing it to get beyond the point of being treatable. In 1997 that may well have killed me, but I'd rather not go into detail. I hope that clarifies my point, and I'm quite sure that any country trying to impose their ways on another always leads to disaster anyway, so rest assured I am not trying to say the US should adopt an NHS style system, any more than I think we should try to adopt a US style one here. It seems given our govt's tendency to extract stealth taxes we would end up with the worst of both worlds anyway - paying via taxes AND private insurance, and that makes sense to no-one.