May be relevant to this, that money probably goes a lot further in the NHS than in US system. Staff are paid less, hospitals run on lower budgets, less unnecessary tests, no billing systems, less beaurocracy (NHS has its serious IT issues, but not probably to the level of US healthcare) etc . The NHS is badly under-funded at this point, and more and more Brits resorting to private healthcare to jump waiting lists, and wards in hospitals are not exactly posh, and getting appointments is harder, and you can see things creaking. But I think I'd still rather be treated by the UK's system than USA, unless I was extremely lucky with the right kind of US healthcare insurance, lived near a particularly good hospital etc... If the US would simply adopt our system that everyone deserves treatment no Qs asked, I think that would make life in the US a lot better, for everyone actually, not just low income people.