>>See now my mother had a stens op on her arteries a few years ago. Now she's got polyps or something in her bowels and has been in and out of hospital numerous times of late, for check-ups, consultations, whatever-oscopies, etc. This has cost us all nothing except for the NHI contribs she paid in during her working life. Even if she hadn't and had been unemplyed all her life it would have been the same.
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>>It's really hard for us to grasp a society where this isn't the norm.
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>We also eat small children, especially on breakfast.
>On slightly more serious note: every person who really cannot pay medical expenses gets Medicaid, free and most complete medical coverage. 'Really' means that this person does not have liquid assets, i.e. bank accounts, stocks etc. It doesn't matter if s/he has millionaire relatives or lives in own house.

But social medicine doesn't thus strip a person of his/her assets to pay, until s/he's assetless. It doesn't matter if s/he has millionaire relatives or lives in own house.

Is it a myth that, as portrayed on many US dramas, some people turn to crime, or work themselves into the ground, because "my mom needed and operation - and she needed it bad". If so, how come it's so oft told in such stories?