[prion]

The report clearly states that it includes comparisons between rich americans and rich Brits, both of whom have private health cover and the health gap is still just as big, proving it has nothing to do with the NHS.

Even if you have private insurance in the UK, your health care is affected by the NHS. You get a better standard of care (if only measured in a private room versus a crowded co-ed public ward), but availability of doctors and equipment is still impacted by the system. So is the general state of innovation and progress. Cancer survival rates in the UK, for one example, are at the low end for an industrialized nation.

[Vectorian]

'Even if you have private insurance in the UK, your health care is affected by the NHS. You get a better standard of care (if only measured in a private room versus a crowded co-ed public ward), but availability of doctors and equipment is still impacted by the system.'

Not so. When I use my private healthcare, I go to a private hospital with private doctors and nurses - it's nowhere near an NHS hospital.

[A. Pole]

Cancer survival rates in the UK, for one example, are at the low end for an industrialized nation.

Do they get less or more cancer? If they get less their cases might be harder to cure.