Hacker News Reader

The UK has a national health service that is excellent and yet some people are happy to pay for additional health insurance to cover non-essential and service-related things.

Want gourmet meals and a playstation in your room? That is a perfectly fine use of "extra" health insurance.

Everyone had a right to free primary and secondary school education yet some people opt for private schools - this too is okay.

View on HN

It is understood that there will be those who buy bottled water where public utilities provide clean drinking water for all. Roughly 10% of the UK population are contributing to private health plans (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/16/private-med...). Apparently, the % of population fully covered by such plans is lower still (at under 1%). While this is a huge waste, this is not what I was alluding to. I have no argument to make if everyone in the US had access to health care comparable to that provided by the NHS.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com