" I also have to admit to being astonished that a first world country such as the US could leave a pensioner in crippling dire circumstance due to nothing more than an empty wallet, surely the local medical authorities are not that evil?"

Oh, but they are, mate. The health industry here is just that. An industry. As the current breed of "Republicans" do their damnedest to roll back any sort of medical aid to the poorest members of society, its getting even more medieval, too.

If it doesn't add to the coffers, the most vulnerable of the population "had better do it, and decrease the surplus population" (if my memory of Dickens' most loathesome character is any good). Indeed, Scrooge would be fittingly dressed in an Uncle Sam outfit.

Treasure the NHS, no matter how flawed. The US "first-world"? Hardly.