Coma footballer is $1 million in debt in San Francisco

The UK NHS system is far from perfect, but thank God for it, and thousands of Irish get to benefit from it too.

CroughPatrick: You should be ashamed of yourself. You may want to live in a USA where foreign guests of our country are turned away in their hour of need when a calamity befalls them. I sure don't. It's not what my religion teaches me, and it's not what my Irish forebears taught me. If you happen to go to Ireland, North or South, and are involved in a serious accident, I hope you'll be consistent and refuse care paid for by Irish taxpayers.

Obviously, this is a sad indictment of our health care system. It is also a commentary on sports in the US with a "win at any cost" mentality. The reform of the healthcare system was hijacked by radical feminists who push and push and push for abortion while men need medical care.

I hope he fully recovers and I dont want to sound cold but he doesn't have to pay a penny. He is 22 years old and is not a citizen of the US. When he can,he will fly back to Belfast without worrying about his bills here. The quicker he goes back the better for the US tax payer. If you want to raise funds for his rehab back in Fermanagh or a ramp at his house then great. One of the reasons US health care is so expensive is because the people who do have insurance have to pay for the people who don't, like this guy who isn't even an American citizen. His family knows had this happened back in N. Ireland, he'd be dead and buried weeks ago. He is getting some of the best care in the world in that American hospital and I think its great they want to raise money for the bills. But the reality is the poor in America are not dieing, they get great care when needed in emergencies like this one. They are kept alive on machines when they might be better off dead. I'm not saying that is the case here, but shouldnt this guy and the whole team been mandated to have health insurance before playing this violent sport in America? I know whenever an American high school or college hockey team goes to play in a sanctioned game in Canada, the team must have insurance.

Not really. The cost of similar treatment in Ireland is the same. In some cases, the course of treatment is simply not available, in which case, young Mark would have died. Hospitals in America are forbidden by law to turn away the needy, and this treatment would be available to any US citizen in the same health crisis. The finance numbers are huge but that is the battleground for politicians, greedy doctors and greedier insurance companies, any life-threatening illness or injury devastates the persons life and livelihood. Not just in America.

One million huh?Another five million and he could be the six million dollar man.Even having his own tv show.The cost of medicine in America is ludicrous and suggests to me that the poor in America must be dieing in their droves and its going unreported.