There are more possible health care systems than the NHS and the worst of all worlds disaster that is US healthcare. I know British people love the NHS but I don't think the US should copy it given its bad outcomes and constant issues with Tories underfunding it (as if the "deficit hawk" wing of the Republicans that is currently blocking the debt ceiling increase wouldn't do the same thing to an American NHS).

I think any kind of reform to US health care is going to require a substantial role for the market (ideally without coverage networks, deductibles or those insurance company death panels that refuse to pay for care that a doctor considers medically necessary) and probably an expanded role for Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP. There should probably also be a single payer malpractice insurance program so that doctors can start private practices again, a federal law requiring safe staffing ratios for nurses (maybe tying this to Medicare funds?) and antitrust action to break up hospital monopolies. Addressing college costs and cancelling all student loan debt would also help as many doctors are still repaying their med school loans decades after graduation.

> I know British people love the NHS but I don't think the US should copy it given its bad outcomes

keep in mind that for the vast majority of Americans the bad outcomes of the NHS would still be a massive improvement from what they have now which is basically no care at all. I know people who are solidly middle class but are putting off needed healthcare because of costs that wouldn't be any issue whatsoever if they were UK citizens and for lower income US families there's no NHS waiting list as long as "You will never be able to afford what you need"

I agree that, if we were to look to implement some version of the NHS here, we should learn from their mistakes and shortcomings, but it we took it as is today it'd still be a net win for Americans.

Not a good example. At the moment it's being criminally mismanaged by the conservative government. The NHS has seen better days.

Of course it's a good example. The whole point of nationalizing things is to make them subject to politics, and an important consideration in nationalizing important services is that they will only run as well as your country's politics.

While the NHS is subject to the whims of Tory politicians, it can still be kept trudging along through a period of incapable government thanks to the legion of civil servants running in the background. I don't think the US has any equivalent answer for the UK Civil service.

How's it doing?

I imagine it's still a lot better than the high cost and poor outcomes we have here in the US.

Being increasingly gutted by Tories.

Just as good as the US system, at less than 1/2 the cost?