This appears to be an honest assessment of the system set up in 1948 after WWII.
Why should we Americans care about it? Because the Democrat party line is to establish universal care here. We must look at these pros and cons in order to make an informed decision.
The National Health Service, or NHS, is the United Kingdom's public universal health system. It was established in 1948 after World War II, and has since grown to become a massive operation: The NHS sees a million patients every day. It employs 1.7 million people, which makes it the fifth biggest employer in the entire world. And of course, it is free at the point of use for U.K. residents. If you walk into an NHS hospital with a broken arm, you'll walk out with a cast, a few x-rays, and zero bills to pay. That's because people who live in the U.K., myself included, contribute to the NHS through taxes and national insurance payments (the U.K.'s version of Social Security).
And, here’s the biggest problem:
But this system is far from perfect. It is plagued by funding problems and staff shortages. We encountered the NHS's dark underbelly after postnatal complications landed us in the hospital. The NHS gave me a healthy baby, yes. But the NHS also gave me nightmares that still wake me from a dead sleep, even nine months on.
The NHS is practically begging doctors from other countries to come to work for it, even offering fully-paid tuition to medical school for pre-med students.
More about this @ The good, the bad, and the ugly of England's universal health-care system
A similar system exists in Canada and it should surprise nobody that many Canadians cross the border to get their much-needed treatments here. The only advantage to us is, that like Mexico, medications there are much cheaper than here.