The letter, which has been signed by top doctors from across Britain, including Sir George Alberti, the Government’s emergency care Tsar, and Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, the president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, insists that the NHS is “literally a life saver”, especially for patients with pre-existing health conditions.

“In the US, people with pre-existing health problems are rarely covered by private insurance companies for those problems,” it reads.

“Many do not change jobs for fear of losing cover for such conditions from their new insurers. The NHS is literally a life saver for those with pre-existing health problems – they are not denied care.”

“On average, British users of the NHS live longer and have a lower infant mortality rate than the US,” it adds, while “survey after survey” shows high patient satisfaction.

The NHS also give “freedom from (the) fear” of the financial consequences of falling sick.

The elderly are given the same treatment as younger patients, with free flu vaccinations, nursing care visits, and home help on top, it adds.

The letter also points to the case of Prof Stephen Hawking, who suffers from motor neurone disease, who last month insisted that he owed his life to the NHS.

Although Britons can take out private health insurance, only one in eight chooses to do so, the letter adds.

The letter, published in the British Medical Journal, attacks claims that the NHS has “death panels”, in which doctors decide who should continue to receive medication and treatment, a key claim of opponents of President Obama’s healthcare reform plans.

It also refutes one American politician’s assertion that Teddy Kennedy, the senator who died last month, would not have received treatment for his brain tumour in Britain, because at 77 he was too old.

2) High rates of hospital-acquired infections are a complex issue. I agree that the NHS is understaffed on the frontline in many places, and some places have poor managers. However, this is far from the only reason. We should increase the number of frontline nurses, lower bed occupancy rates and build better hospitals. If we were to double spending on the NHS to achieve those goals, we would still be spending only as much as the US does.

3) ‘Let the government do it for you’ is not necessarily a hallmark of socialism. In the modern European sense of socialism meaning social democracy. Rather, it is a hallmark of authoritarianism (the opposite of libertarianism[US]/liberalism[UK]). Either left- or right-wing ideologies can favour an authoritarian approach.