On 2008-06-27 21:14:44 +0100, Roland Perry said:

In message 4863f8e7@qaanaaq, at 21:15:35 on Thu, 26 Jun 2008, Andy
Hall remarked:
I've never heard patients in the waiting room at my dentist or at the
reception bitching about paying.
That's like asking Marie Antionette if she ever heard anyone moaning
about the price of cake.

Not really. This is asking the peasants.

But the only peasants in that private waiting room of yours are those
who have self-selected themselves as being happy to pay.

There is at least the choice of whether or not to pay.

The government doesn't offer that. It charges through taxation,
whether or not the individual uses the (broken) service and then
charges again since they have to pay for treatment out of net income.