I'll give you the fact the Hawking case was an emergency. But lets talk about the 18 week wait time in England for medical attention. What is the wait time in Canada? I wonder what a realistic wait time in the U.S. is for elective surgery? I know I've had surgery within a few days of meeting with a surgeon if his schedule allowed it. Why the wait time as standard operating proceedure anyway?
I don't think Americans realize or want to have these wait times applied to them when it comes to their personal health issues. People should poke around the Addenbrooke web site a bit to see where this issue is headed here in America. Glad you were watching and chimed in.
I think many answers lie in the GAO web site. Takes lots of time to unravel though.