re: #23 Backwoods_Sleuth

I do have first hand experience with NHS in England.
My first husband (RIP) was in end stage Crohn’s Disease and it was his first trip anywhere a plane.
We were at a B&B in Lancashire and he had an attack at 4 am.
Front desk called in the emergency and an NHS emergency doctor arrived within 20 minutes and got him stabilized.
Next morning we returned to my friend’s vicarage and his neighbor happened to be a physician, who examined hubs and suggested heading to A&E.
We had purchased travel insurance, which covered a private hospital, so we headed off to BMI The Highfield Hospital in Rochdale, where the neighbor physician had admitting privileges.

Total cost of a two-day stay, plus prescriptions, was a fraction of the cost it would have been here in the States.

And by fraction, I mean the total bill at a private hospital before insurance was less than $1,000.

and meals were catered.
on fine china.
with a menu and wine list.

included in the total cost.

I really fail to see where the downside is.

The downside is that a CEO is not making 20 million a year to run an insurance company.