When Investor's Business Daily attempted to scare readers away from
"socialized medicine" by claiming Stephen Hawking wouldn't be alive
today if he relied on the British health care system, they neglected a
couple of things. 1) Hawking does rely on the British National Health
Service. 2) Hawking can speak for himself.

Hugh Muir of the Guardian quotes the IBD editorial at length:

"The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain
through rationing, and the health consequences thereof, are legendary.
The stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether
read like a horror script ... People such as scientist Stephen Hawking
wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service
would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical
handicaps, is essentially worthless."

Muir spoke to Hawking for his reaction to that statement, and framed it
thus:

We say his life is far from worthless, as they do at Addenbrooke's
hospital, Cambridge, where Professor Hawking, who has motor neurone
disease, was treated for chest problems in April. As indeed does he. "I
wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," he told us. "I have
received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would
not have survived."


Something here is worthless. And it's not Hawking.