Of course, worth noting that while you can opt out of using the NHS you can't opt out of paying for it. Which I'm personally OK with - especially as for many things private healthcare providers rely on the NHS (e.g. the consultant who treats you at a private hospital almost certainly has a "day job" at the NHS as was trained there).

.. and in general private providers deal with the complicated uneconomic problematic cases by punting them back to the NHS. The state system is "insurer of last resort", insuring you against the failures of the private insurance system.

I'm OK with it too (in fact have used it since my previous employer offered insurance, so why not) as long as people understand that it's a convenience for people for whom time is more important than money and who want to get prompt treatment for things that are important enough to stop you working but not enough to kill you.

My teenage son had his tonsils taken out a couple of years back at a private UK hospital (under my work coverage) and after the operation the anesthetist came up to me and apologized and said there was an extra cost that (for some reason) wasn't covered under my insurance.

Having heard all of the horror stories from the US I was quite worried until he eventually told me how much I had to pay extra - pretty sure it was £4.20. :-)

Amazing. That's less than the meal I just ate in the cafeteria at the hospital (Chicago suburbs) where I'm waiting for my daughter to be born; for her birth, I was told my cost will be somewhere between $3k-$7k, but I won't know until the hospital has settled up with our insurance company.

Being charged to give birth is one of the things I find most incomprehensible about the US system :(

Well, that was a small additional charge. Not what the insurance cost - which I got through my previous job so not sure what it cost (NB I did pay tax on it, but wasn't a huge amount).

For a reference point, our health insurance costs $650/month. Wife is on a PPO plan, I'm on a high deductible plan (out of pocket for any costs until I've spent $6000 in a year).

Also, if you ever have an emergency, you're being treated by an NHS ambulance crew and taken to an NHS hospital.