The NHS -- again

I hate to go on about the NHS, the socialised National Health Service, here, but it really does seem good to me.
A British girlfriend of mine called tonight to say her mother had fallen and broken her hip -- and her wrist -- a couple weeks ago.
The day after her 90-year-old mother fell, they gave her a hip replacement at the hospital.
The day after. And she didn't pay a dime. (Okay she did in contributions, as my husband keeps telling me).
They came and got her in an ambulance, like they do, and took her to the hospital, and bright and early the next day, a new titanium hip.
Because you shouldn't wait too long when you've broken a hip like that.
What?
My elderly mother broke her hip in the States a few years ago now.
It took us about a month to get a hip replacement for her. And the bills that came from the ambulance service the night she fell were overwhelming.
Ambulance service wasn't covered by Medicare.
I know several people who have returned to Britain from abroad because they have either chronic health issues that need taking care of, or their children do.
No other place to be, really, when you're in that position, and you're British.
The good 'ol National Health.
Nothing like it for what ails you.