NHS Update

About 18 months ago I criticized Britain's National Health Service for a policy according to which you lose entitlement to NHS treatment if you choose to supplement it with care the NHS doesn't pay for. Money quote from the article to which I linked:

Officials said that allowing Mrs. Hirst and others like her to pay for extra drugs to supplement government care would violate the philosophy of the health service by giving richer patients an unfair advantage over poorer ones.

Via commenter david at this MR (re-) post, I've now learned that this policy was reversed in late 2008. That's some good old news.

Meanwhile, Andrew Hickey takes on incorrect claims about the NHS that appear to be popular with the US right.