I am not all that surprised. I took patients to Kings County Hospital on a regular basis when I worked in Brooklyn. Apart from the trauma unit, which was excellent, (most of the time) the rest of the hospital was, to put it mildly, a shit hole. The psych unit had a rather infamous reputation, even back then. (I worked Brooklyn from 1987-1999.) As for your other point regarding US healthcare, it is a far more complex issue than just "privatized healthcare," and even that is not completely accurate. To be sure, it is a system that needs some serious overhaul, and those who think that simply implementing some form of universal healthcare (socialized medicine, if you will) is going to be a panacea for all its ills are deluding themselves. Certainly, it would be a boon as far as basic health care coverage, but there is so much more that needs to be considered. I speak to this issue quite personally, as both a former health care provider, administrator, and as a user, being a liver transplant recipient.