Why do you guys have the NHS instead of national health insurance?

Most countries in Europe opted for giving everybody insurance. In England, you guys opted for the NHS. Why? What are the advantages? All I've heard about the NHS is that it's not good (unlike the continental European health insurance systems which are said to be excellent). Am I wrong? What ARE the advantages to making the entire health care industry government-run?

So we don't get appeals like there has been lately on DU for Andy's cancer treatment - in the UK he would be treated for no charge. We pay for this through higher taxes, but because no profit, competition, or huge salaries are creamed off, we get far better value for money out of our service. And we have no reason to fear, ever, that we will lack treatment. We will always be treated, without exception.

Some people say the NHS isn;t that good but they would miss it if it went. Most of these people have only a passing relationship with the NHS, where they see the hospitals aren't very smart and there are often waits. This is because the hospitals aren't businesses, and because Tory cuts came close to destroying the service.

The NHS is a national treasure.

Like most here I never needed much help from the system in terms of hospital but I was always happy to pay to contribute towards it for those who did. Then I was diagnosed with MS and everything I needed was there and has been since. Doesn't matter if you have no money, no insurance, whatever... help when you need it, whatever your circumstances, is always there.

It seems to me that a society which sees healthcare as a business is lacking something. Like education, it's the right of all members of that society, not a privelege.

...except that we might be dead before we get to the front of the queue! And it's hard to get 'alternative' or 'complementary' treatment.

Still, it provides some protection. Most of the people who work for it genuinely believe in the public good. There's a nostalgic remnant of mid-20th century socialism about it, which can be nice.

The NHS is hammered by the press and a national pastime is whinging about it, but it is one of the most noble organisations in the world. We are all basically paying for eachothers healthcare. I have never had much need for, or contact with the NHS, but am proud to pay into such an extensive organisation that basically cares for each and all.

...it's problems stem from the fact that it's underfunded compared with the continental Europeans' systems. Britain spends about 65% per head of what France spends on it's healthcare system. The NHS has steadily improved in recent years.

http://www.historyandpolicy.org/archive/policy-paper-08.html

"The drive to make the NHS fully, or more fully, contributory was halted in 1962 by Enoch Powell's appointment as minister of health. To add to the irony, despite being an economic liberal, he also revelled in the launching of the alternative Hospital Plan, which he described as 'an opportunity to plan the hospital system on a scale which is not possible anywhere else certainly on this side of the Iron Curtain'. 'Command and control policy' came into its own as the focussed turned on how the money should be spent rather than raised."

Basically, the Labour party preferred the idea of funding from taxes (ie based on ability to pay) for ideological reasons; and the Conservatives who followed them didn't disagree enough to change it (and were already changing the pension system to one based on contributions, and didn't want to try to change the health system at the same time). The irony refered to above is enormous; Powell is the most right wing cabinet minister that Britain has had since the Second World War - now mainly remembered for his racist views on immigration.

There is private sector health care in the UK as well; many (most, I think, but I can't be bothered to look up the figures) people use private dentistry, and opticians are private; some people also have private insurance, which provides doctors who can give you longer appointments, quicker treatments for non-urgent problems, guaranteed private rooms in hospital etc. Everyone uses the NHS for all urgent serious treatment. One advantage is that collecting the money is simple and inexpensive.