Okay, so for the first time I have watched the movie Sicko, and my first thought was how sick my mom is and how she has a 300 dollar co-pay for outpatient services. If we lived in the UK or Canada or France, according to Michael Moore, she would be being treated and not paying a dime. Well, I am not one to just blindly believe something I see in a "documentary" (thanks to ats) so I started doing a little digging. I found a news article that was talking about the NHS, which is the free health care system in the UK and it offered people a chance to post comments on the article. The article was talking about how poorly run the NHS is and how citizens of the UK are going abroad for treatment. Well naturally they aren't coming to the US for treatment, we all know our healthcare system sucks, but what I don't get is how can a "documentary" make it sound so glorious over there then come to find out it's just as bad as it is here?

What I want to know is what our friends across the pond think of their health care system. As an American, I see your system as better, but that's only because my stupid insurance won't even cover my quit smoking drugs.............what insurance company doesn't want to see me quit. That's a DUH moment for them, but whatever, and the fact that my mom has a 300 dollar copay. I think I would gladly take the long lines over not being treated at all, or denied once I have been treated and the bills are coming everyday and they are threatening to take my house away from me.

So is Michael Moore a liar and a conspirator, or are you Brits just complaining when in fact you don't know how good you really have it. Not trying to sound like a jerk or anything, just want to get the facts as YOU ALL know them about your health care system. It certainly sounds more appealing than ours here in the US.

The NHS is variable. It has been underfunded for years, certain services are better than others. Successive governments have increased the size of interfering administration over the actual people on the ground, making it even more difficult for doctors and nurses to do their jobs. Many bad decisions from up the food chain, wasting millions on crappy systems and, more recently, doctors contracts which underestimated the hours they work.

But, overall, I wouldn't swap it for an american-based system. We don't have people selling property and going bankrupt to fund essential healthcare. If there's anything brits do well, it is moaning.

So, it isn't perfect. But it's mostly good.