This is just to add my two cents on this, as this has really got me hot under the collar. Oh and I've seen the townhall crap going down on the other side of the pond...I've given up trying to comprehend these people as it just makes my brain hurt. It really is incredibly ironic - the people who are all about 'me me me' are acting against their own self-interest.

To put the craziness of the right-wingers in some perspective, David Cameron, the leader of the right-wing Conservative Party here in the UK, loves the NHS because of the incredible support and care it provided his tragic, late son Ivan with. Ivan was born with severe cerebral palsy and was much more severely disabled than Stephen Hawking. Yet the NHS made Ivan's short life as comfortable as possible; emergency services were always on hand he suffered seizures; through the NHS, Ivan became less of a burden and more of a joy to his parents; and the Camerons were able to live an almost normal life with their other children.

Yes, Republicans, our own British right-wingers would not only not even consider tearing down this evil, Orwellian institution but they cherish it. I'm not fond of Cameron, the Tories or their policies, but I'm immensely thankful that they're reasonable conservatives rather than those of the Republican variety. What these wackos in the US also fail to realise is that we in the UK have a private option - BUPA - which, if we find that treatments we need are unavailable on the NHS, we may choose to take up. Our system is basically the opposite of the American one - and vastly superior.

As for my experience with the NHS personally - I've worn glasses since my childhood - the NHS paid for lenses AND frames until I turned 18, and continued to subsidise them while I went through university. I had an operation to remove my appendix - it was done swiftly, I faced no ruinous bills nor an insurance company trying to worm its way out of covering me. When I've been sick, I did not have to pay to go to the doctor, and for years I did not have to pay for my prescription.

I have just one question for Republicans: how, how is having your very health subjected to the whims of greedy crooks who will desperately try to avoid paying your medical bills, better than being guaranteed treatment and good quality medical care for absolutely nothing? In what world other than Bizarro World is having your life held to ransom a good thing? Please explain. Either give me - and the rest of the country you just insulted - a coherent, well-thought out answer, or take the medicine I'm prescribing for you - a nice hot cup of Shut. The. Fuck. Up.