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Comment by old-gregg | Hacker News Reader

Fascinating.

On a side note: if that happened to me I suspect I'd be ruined financially. Even though I have an insurance: they would have decided to pay for only one or two of those MRI scans and angiograms, because they'd think that should have been enough for a doctor to figure it out.

I have a couple of friends involved in cardiology and I suspect those are pretty accurate predictions.

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Having grown up in the UK, I've always taken for granted that this level of healthcare is readily available to me whenever I might need it, money no object. The concept of having to consider the cost implications of treatment like this seems very alien to me. I'm now contemplating moving abroad and this is something that I've been thinking about lately. Not having the NHS around would have made me hesitate more before starting my own business, I think.

You should always consider the cost implications. The money has to come from somewhere — it's just that on the NHS, other taxpayers are the ones responsible for your health problems.

(I'm a Brit who's had a little too much social liberalism today. Sorry.)

I happily pay my taxes, exactly so that someone like Mary can get the required treatment. Hardly any individual can carry the costs of such medical investigations and operations.

Yes, I certainly know how lucky I am to live in a country with a nationalised health service. And I am eternally grateful to the rest of the population who have contributed to my healthcare via their taxes. I know that if I live to be a hundred, the taxes I pay won't get close to covering the cost.

I can only speak for myself, but I'm glad some of my taxes get spent of things like this, even if I were never to benefit, it's still an absolute good.

The NHS is one of the greatest things we've invented in the UK. It's not always perfect but everyone uses it at some point, some more than others that's just the nature of illness. You may not have had to use it yet, but one day you or your family might and if that happens you'll be glad it's there.

Thanks to the NHS we don't have stories like this one http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/164436/boy_dies_fro...

I gladly pay my taxes for things like the NHS, my taxes are spent on far worse things thats for sure.

Yeah, but it's still a fraction of what we pay in the US where the insurance industry takes a nice chunk :-P

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