[/quote]The UK NHS has nothing to learn from the free market US medical care system. It may well treat the top 10 percent of US citizens with the best health care in the world but this is at the expense of the bottom thirty percent who get very little health care.[/quote]

Actually, not quite true. The American system takes very good care of the top 20% and the bottom 20% income levels. It takes reasonably good care of another 30% or so of the people in the middle. All told, it is about 30% of Americans who comprise the so-called "working poor" who do not have good ongoing access to health-promoting medical care. Most hospitals are required by law to render emergency, life saving treatment without regard to whether or not the patient has any ability to pay. Many community hospitals cannot turn away anyone who requires medical treatment (other than elective, cosmetic, etc), regardless of ability to pay. The problem is, a bill is still generated, and it can hang out there for years, ruining the credit of the uninsured patient, leading in some cases to loss of house, bankruptcy, etc. The unpaid blls are a big part of the cost of medical care in this country. Ask any businessman: if his rate of dishonor on his billings is 1% he can keep his prices a lot lower than if it's 10%.

The American system unrealistically tends to assume that people will make reasonable efforts to protect themselves and their families by setting aside some of their own money against the possibility of medical treatment. There are several tax incentive-supported plans to do so, but the response to this approach has been underwhelming. IMHO many people do not think they should have to assume financial responsibility for their own medical care.

I don't have "the" answer, and I doubt if anyone does. However, I suspect that universal, government funded (which is to say, us) and government controlled (which is to say, not us) medical care is coming, and soon.