Originally Posted by Wundergecko

Hey, so, have you ever lived in the United Kingdom? Had sustained experience using its National Health Service? I'm guessing not. I have, and I'm also an American.
No, I've only visited on a couple of occasions, and didn't require so much as an aspirin while I was in the UK. I do, however, have two coworkers from the UK. And despite all the purported evils of American society, I think they came willingly. One of them uses a car analogy to describe the health care situation thus: In the UK everyone is entitled to government provided Hyundai. In the USA some have a Lexus, some have a Cadillac, some have a Buick, some have a Hyundai, and some have no car at all. To the ones with no car at all, a Hyundai looks pretty darn good. But no one wants to give up her Lexus or Cadillac so that everyone with no car at all can have a Hyundai.

Aaaanyway, sorry for the rant, but when I see someone referring to the NHS as "health care" in quotation marks, I get a little "annoyed". It is an imperfect system, but it's far less barbaric than what goes on in the USA. People are dying due to a lack of insurance, lives are being wrecked through healthcare-related debt, and it makes me sick to remember that I used to think that was the best way.
I certainly didn't intend the quotation marks to be offensive. Do you also take issue with the "broader but lower quality" part of my statement?
Or, is a "good health care system" (those darn quotation marks all over the place) to be simply defined as any system where SOMEONE ELSE INSTEAD OF ME pays for my health care? Basically, I think that what nearly everyone wants is just for someone else to pick up the tab. Is that not true?

Unfortunately Mirena didn't work out for me (tachycardia, heart palps, high BP, faintness, etc, etc), so I'm going to try a copper IUD next.