I heard that the European countries love nationalized health care. Does it work well there? The again, I come from Boston, which has just about the best healthcare outside of Israel.

I don't have too good opinions about public Israeli healthcare, private is excellent but it is very expensive.

Anyway, in Finland it works, and is free until you turn 18. For your average illnessess it works nicely, but if you have something which is quite rare that requires a specialist then you need to consult the private sector.
Though, that isn't to say the system doesn't need reform, the idea is good but the practice isn't good enough yet.

I have heard there has been one problem with money..

The budget, the healthcare receives hasn't increased strongly for some time, while more and more diseases can be treaded nowadays. Also the new treatments for rare or difficult diseases tend to cost lot.

So at the same time, when the money flow hasn't increased sufficiently, more people must be taken care of with more expensive medication. It has caused problems.

-BtD

__________________
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
[George Orwell, 1984]

Isn't heathcare reform one of Blair and the Liberal Party's biggest issues for the upcoming elections?

It works like this
Everyone pays their taxes. Part of this funds the national health service. Everyone gets free medical treatment.
Now there are certain restrictions for the types of treatment for example its hard to get free dental treatment and you won't get cosmetic surgery. But pretty much anything else and you get it all for free.
There are some issues with the NHS mainlt due to underfunding and so some people in the UK do have private health cover as well. So they can get opperations performed more quickly as there tends to be waiting lists on the NHS. Obviously life saving emergency ops skip arre performed imediatly.

I think our NHS system is one of the greatest achievements of past labour governments. Health and health care is a right for everyone regardless of their financial status. The nhs is a good thing.

Ok heres my take on the NHS.....the reason its messed up is that its been seriously underfunded under years of conservative rule in Britain. Labour came to power in 1997 and now its improving slowly. Problem is its expensive.......IT AINT FREE. We have to pay for out healthcare via tax and national insurance etc.....thats why us Brits get slightly mad when people come over here and abuse our system......WE pay for it.

If you ask me private enterprise can't be trusted with peoples health....thats why i support the NHS.

Also note this, the NHS is the largest employer in Europe.........it supplies jobs to hundreds of thousands of people, doctors, nurses, admin people, cleaners, cooks etc etc etc. I think that outbalances the negative press the NHS gets in the media.

Also if its so bad why do we get bomb victims from Iraq over here all the time??????

__________________
Economic Left/Right: -6.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.72