spent one and a half. According to the latest OECD figures, Denmark outspends Britain on healthcare, head for head, by 25 per cent. On the basis of the Rockwool study, the Kaiser system could be reproduced in Britain only if health spending were increased by 87 per cent. That is not going to happen on any Tory or Labour planet in this galaxy. The curious thing about the Lansley plan is that it is supposed to save money, yet despite the increase in spending on the NHS under Labour, the organisation remains a bargain. The two foreign systems with which it is most often compared, the American and the French, are more expensive, are coming to be seen as unaffordable in their own countries and contain elements that it would be hard for Britons to accept. Kaiser works well and is cheaper than traditional American healthcare. But it still reflects the US model. Most people over 65 are eligible for Medicare, a kind of gold-plated American NHS for the elderly, but otherwise, if you have no insurance -- you don't have a job, you're too poor, you're gambling that you won't get sick -- you have no guaranteed access to Kaiser's facilities. If you fall seriously ill in the US, aren't insured and aren't rich, you have two main options: to go to a hospital's accident and emergency unit, where they're obliged to treat you, or to try to get Medicaid, a government programme to help the poor and disadvantaged