Price of health

VISITIng from the U.S., I have been surprised how little loyalty friends and relatives here show for the nHS.

People tend to talk in glowing terms about the american health system, which doesn’t make patients wait for operations and seems to provide an endless supply of leadingedge drugs.

They describe the nHS as too expensive and too constrained by bureaucracy. They think they would be better off with a ‘modern’ system that would give them more freedom of choice.

They sound like a commercial and have obviously been reading, hearing and believing the propaganda about how private options should be explored in the UK.

This conversation goes on until I mention how much we pay for this freedom in america. a 60-year- old middle-class couple with no dependants pay more than $20,000 (about £16,000) a year under the affordable Care act (‘Obamacare’).

about half of that amount is covered by your employer, if you have one. and it’s expected the amount you have to pay will rise greatly under ‘Trumpcare’.

mr Trump is specifically targeting the over-50s. It makes your healthcare costs sound trivial.

It might be a helpful public service to show a comparison between the nHS and what passes for healthcare in the U.S.

DAVID OSBORNE, Los Angeles, California.