National Health Care in a phrase....

Y'all have heard how the Prime Minister of Newfoundland came to the US to have his heart surgery at his expense, rather than have it for free under the Canadian Healthcare program.

I could regale you for hours with horror stories my in-laws have suffered in England in the octopus, Catch 22 arms of the British version of National Health care.... but I won't.

This brief open letter from the German publication 'Bild' to the Greek Prime Minister, in one phrase..... says it all! That the British left wing paper, The Guardian, chose to reprint it speaks even louder!!

Get up earlier, Germans tell Greeks

First Greece was told to sell islands to pay off its debts, now the German tabloid Bild has reminded George Papandreou of the two countries' differences

• guardian.co.uk, Friday 5 March 2010 16.24 GMT

After yesterday's call by two German politicians that Greece sell off islands, historic buildings and artworks before receiving aid, the German tabloid Bild has written an open letter to the Greek prime minister George Papandreou:

Dear prime minister,

If you're reading this, you've entered a country different from yours. You're in Germany.

Here, people work until they are 67 and there is no 14th-month salary for civil servants. Here, nobody needs to pay a €1,000 bribe to get a hospital bed in time.

Our petrol stations have cash registers, taxi drivers give receipts and farmers don't swindle EU subsidies with millions of non-existent olive trees.

Germany also has high debts but we can settle them. That's because we get up early and work all day.

We want to be friends with the Greeks. That's why since joining the euro, Germany has given your country €50bn.

The emphasis in that hospital bed phrase is mine. It speaks volumes about national health care doesn't it? Obviously, the service is plumb different for those with the drachma in their pockets.......

And remember folks, this was in the Guardian, which is left of the New York Times!