My employer has offices in Ireland and the UK and people often move from those branch offices to the US. So we get first hand information from them about their national systems.
The people I’ve spoken with says that their national health system is only used by the poor and working class. Everyone else buys private insurance.

Once again Michele is making a false comparison about the US health care plans by using the far too often Republican scare tactics designed to mislead people.
Glen Beck has previously stated that anyone that believes everything he says is a fool.
Check the statistics below that compare International health care issues:
the US is the worse in every category – what an embarrassment to a country were many citizens still think the US is a superpower. We are quickly losing our status in the world
The UK is the best or close to the best in every category
PolitiFact has about 5 pages that link to analysis on health care plan statements.
http://tinyurl.com/l9m2n8
The health care reform plan would set limits similar to the “socialized” system in Britain, where people are allowed to die if their treatment would cost more than $22,000.
Club for Growth on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 in a TV ad
Ruling: False – There’s no proposal to put a price on life
Educate yourselves rather than listening to Michele or the Media. The are several good websites that are doing analysis on health care.
The Commonwealth Fund http://tinyurl.com/lb9n4p (click on link for International Health Survey)
U.S. Adults with Chronic Conditions, Insured All Year Compared with Uninsured – 2008
Same-day appointment – Adults with any chronic condition
US 26%
UK 48%
NZ 54%
NETH 60%
GER 43%
FR 42%
CAN 26%
AUS 36%
Diabetics Who Received Recommended Preventive Care Services
US 26%
UK 48%
Cost-Related Access Problems in Past Two Years – 2008
Did not fill Rx or skipped doses
US 43%
UK 7%
NZ 18%
NETH 3%
GER 12%
FR 13%
CAN 18%
AUS 20%
Did not visit a doctor when had a medical problem
US 36%
UK 4%
NZ 22%
NETH 3%
GER 15%
FR 11%
CAN 9%
AUS 21%
Did not get recommended test, treatment, or follow-up
US 38%
UK 6%
NZ 18%
NETH 3%
GER 13%
FR 13%
CAN 11%
AUS 25%
Any of the above access problems because of cost
US 54%
UK 13%
NZ 31%
NETH 7%
GER 26%
FR 23%
CAN 25%
AUS 36%

After being unable to obtain health care insurance due to preexisting conditions and knowing individuals that are self-employed or work for a small business, I am very passionate about the need for health care improvements.
Michele has previously praised Jake Tapper’s journalism work, which is one of the few things she has said that is accurate.
Sarah Palin, who holds herself out to be a Christian, once again made horrible lies to scare people about health care plans. After blaming the media for attacking her children, she is a hypocrite for once again using one of her children in public statements.
“Palin Paints Picture of ‘Obama Death Panel’ Giving Thumbs Down to Trig
August 07, 2009 9:30 PM
When we last heard from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin she was — not without some justification — beseeching some members of the media to “quit making things up.”
But in a post on her Facebook Page today, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee seemed to take some liberties of her own.
In a column titled “Statement on the Current Health Care Debate,” Palin wrote that as “Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!”
…
“And who will suffer the most when they ration care?” Palin asks. “The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.”
One can question whether there will by necessity be any rationing decisions that will need to come as a part of health care reform (and, in fact, we have) but pictures of government bureaucrats forcing euthanasia upon seniors — and, now, children with Down syndrome — because they’re not productive members of society are not part of any reasonable debate on the facts of the matter. (And frankly, I agreed with Palin previously, when she was asking members of the media to keep her children out of any public debate.)”
Read the rest of Jake’s informative article on health care. He has links to other sources of good information about health care.
http://tinyurl.com/mb3yae

Is Palin talking about Medpac? The panel that Pres. Obama wants to have a greater role in make quality and costs decisions about Medicare? Well, MedPac is an panel created in 1997 by Republicans to reign in healthcare costs.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iUeFKljc9482Hcl3vdvIM0RMf0GQD99J03080

Julie, Palin is right. The “death panel” is not to be taken literally but rather as a way of saying that by allowing bureaucrats in Washington to make decisions on who gets treatment (because naturally a public system is a rationed system) those who are of “least value” will not be given equal treatment when push comes to shove and tough choices have to be made.
This utilitarian-style thinking is inhumane and immoral – not unlike Obama’s view of the unborn, and even newly-born.
One more point, as a Briton, I just don’t see why you’d want an NHS system. I’m on private insurance with BUPA here in England, so that I can get away from the overcrowed and frustrating public hospital care.

kelly & John did not read Jake Tapper’s blog
Palin is not correct. What she said is ludicrous and deceitful.
More from Tapper’s blog (note: The ‘Advance Care Planning Consultation’ benefit was initially written by a Republican):
“Asked specifically what the former governor was referring to when painting a picture of an Obama “death panel” giving her parents or son Trig a thumbs up or down based on their productivity, Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton responded in an email: “From HR3200 p. 425 see ‘Advance Care Planning Consultation’.”
That’s a curious reading of page 425 of the House Democrats’ bill, which refers to “advance care planning consultation,” defined as a senior and a medical practitioner discussing “advance care planning, if…the individual involved has not had such a consultation within the last 5 years.”
This includes an “explanation by the practitioner of advance care planning, including key questions and considerations, important steps, and suggested people to talk to,” an “explanation by the practitioner of advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses,” and an “explanation by the practitioner of the role and responsibilities of a health care proxy.”
It directs the medical provider to give the patients “a list of national and State-specific resources to assist consumers and their families with advance care planning,” and an explanation “of the continuum of end-of-life services and supports available, including palliative care and hospice, and benefits for such services and supports that are available under this title,” as well as “an explanation of orders regarding life sustaining treatment or similar orders.”
Factcheck.org disputes this interpretation, saying “accepted definition of end-of-life planning means thinking ahead about the care you would like to receive at the end of your life — which may include the choice to reject extraordinary measures of life support, or the choice to embrace them….the bill would not make these sessions mandatory.”
Likewise, Politfact suggests that this interpretation was “Pants-on-Fire” untrue.

John: [N]aturally a public system is a rationed system
Since there is not an infinite amount of healthcare resources, all systems are de facto rationed systems. I have been, for example, arguing with my insurance company over expenses related to my diabetes, which they’re trying to claim as a pre-existing condition. Of course, the company changed insurance companies against our will, otherwise it wouldn’t even be an issue. Isn’t this actually rationing, in effect?
At least government plans are trying to do away with such things, and to ensure that more people get insurance and healthcare than do now. It seems to me that this would result in less rationing than we already have now, in effect.