I became very ill (food poisoning - thanks Gate Gourmet) in Nottingham a few years ago. EMS was called to drag my puking ,shitting body from a bathroom and haul me to an ER. Two litters of fluids, a night's rest in a "ward" (private room with a better view than my hotel room) and I was discharged. No wheel chair - no escort to make sure I didn't injure myself on hospital property - just dismissed to go my way and advised on how to go down three floors and across the street to catch the free bus to the other hospital, where I was working. I eventually received a bill for ~US$600 which included it ALL, even the ambulance ride. My insurance eventually paid it all. I had wonderful care. Do they have the technology we have in the US? I was there teaching how to run their cyclotron to support their PET scanners!
How so affordable? YOU CAN"T SUE THE HOSPITAL! Our laws are written by lawyers and they are not about to cancel that gravy train. Tort reform would be the only logical first step to "affordable care", but that ain't happening in the USA!