On Healthcare

This is something I've mentioned in comments before, but I wanted to mention it again: Iain, being Scottish, grew up with the British National Health Service—better-known as the NHS, that ubiquitously and ominously cited hobgoblin of the American healthcare reform debate, whose alleged long lines and terrible service are the eidolon of reform-obstructionists in the US. He then moved to the US, country of supposedly the greatest healthcare system in the world.

And he has frequently said that the stress of having one's healthcare attached to one's employment, the constant threat that job loss equals loss of healthcare coverage, is such that he would exchange this fucked-up system for the worst of the NHS in a heartbeat.

For the record, he never had a long line or terrible service at the NHS, either. And, when I was living in Scotland, the local doctor's office I went to was just as nice as any to which I've ever been in America.

One of the problems facing Britain is building enough medical facilities to accommodate all its people. It's a small island with green belt laws protecting the countryside from urban sprawl. One thing America is not short of is space. That's not something about which we have to worry—and you'll note, it's also never part of this debate.