I'm interested to hear the (legitimate) responses to see how things differ from the U.S. (where I live).
Personally, I'm very much against socialized healthcare and some of the horror stories I hear on this forum only further confirm that.
When my panc decided to stop working, My husband called an ambulance, the crew spend 40 minutes, getting me stable and gave pain relief, free of charge, I was taken to hospital free of charge and admitted to ICU where I spent 10 days free of charge, my son's American friend worked out with all the tests, scans, Drs, surgeons etc in the first 48 hours it would have cost around £2500,000 if I paid, this was all free of charge, the month I spend in hospital was free of charge, 3 months another emergency admission was also free of charge, a tumour that was found was removed free of charge later the same year, all the after care, etc was free of charge I was offered a home help which would have been free of charge, then when I became diabetic another emergency admission, for 14 days free of charge. The NHS saved my life 3 times in 18 months and it cost me nothing. The treatment and care was second to none. Anything out of the ordinary with my regular free blood test, scans etc are picked up and treated free of charge.
I have 21 different medications each month, all given free of charge if I had to pay they would cost just under £9 for each item, some of my meds cost £100+ to the NHS.
So yes sometimes it isn't great but then again there is no guarantee private health care will be better, bearing in mind that rubbish doctors in Britain usually have links to private clinics as well, so if they are bad it doesn't matter if it is social or private