In contrast to not knowing what I'm paying for, I know the the NHS has given me access to some of the best doctors in the world - that's not hyperbole, either. I've been epileptic since age 9 - around age 15 I had brain surgery at Great Ormond St. Children's Hospital - the surgeon told me they do about twelve of the type of operation he performed per year. Ultimately, I continued having fits but I recently saw that surgeon being interviewed on a TV documentary about the Human brain after he'd performed complex surgery on a newborn baby. These are the calibre of people employed by the NHS
Whatever's wrong with my genetics has also given me other (possibly, possibly not related) conditions - I have the doctors stumped, the folks at the National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery are currently using cutting-edge techniques to analyse my mitochondrial DNA (from blood samples); the consultant jokingly told me not to tell anyone they were doing this because the research is so new (I'm still waiting on results). Wealthy Sheiks pay hundred's of thousands of pounds to get in to these hospitals as private patients (seriously, they take private patients in the very same Hospitals, with the same doctors!) - I get it through just paying my taxes. I don't think any realistic level of insurance in the USA would give me the care I've received on the NHS.