They claimed the NHS would have killed me off: Stephen Hawking on universal health care

Stephen Hawking, the eminent physicist and 40-year survivor of Lou Gehrig's Disease:
A statement in the United States press in summer 2009 claimed the National Health Service in Great Britain would have killed me off, were I a British citizen. I felt compelled to make a statement to explain the error. I am British, I live in Cambridge, England, and the National Health Service has taken great care of me for over 40 years. I have received excellent medical attention in Britain, and I felt it was important to set the record straight. I believe in universal health care. And I am not afraid to say so.

See Chapter 9 on living with chronic illness, in my new book, Getting Your Best Health Care: Real-World Stories for Patient Empowerment. Thanks to Claudia Dreifus for the source interview in Tuesday's New York Times.