I would certainly agree that making smokers who fail to quit wait longer for surgery is out of order, what next, no cough medicine for fatties?

That said, and accepting that there are real problems with the NHS, there are also real problems with private medicine. Ultimately no system is perfect, however in a recent report for the Commonwealth Fund the US placed overall last out of six countries in health care quality (other countries were UK (1), Germany (2), New Zealand and Ausrtalia (joint 3rd), Canada (5) and US (6)). link

It can be argued, legitimately, that the Commonwealth Fund is a pressure group and therefore an unreliable source, nevertheless US health care seems to do consistently poorly in comparisons with other Western nations, including the UK's NHS. More to the point, those countries with mainly Public or mixed Public/private medicine pay about half per capita the cost of care in the US, for what is at least as good, and possibly better service. If we assume that the US provides exemplary care for those who can afford it, and abysmal care for those who can’t, this obviously skews the statistics against the US. I find it very odd that of the six countries studied, only the US has a politically strong Christian movement, yet it adopts the least Christian approach towards caring for the sick.

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=482678#areaCitation