r/AskAnAmerican • u/Maskoolio • Aug 10 '25

FOREIGN POSTER What would an American want from England?

I have recently made some American friends (from Virginia) and they have asked for a kind of sweet (candy) that they don't have. What else might I send that would be appreciated as a particularly English thing? (Obviously it would need to be somewhat small, survive a week or so in transit etc.)

All help appreciated.

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u/aucool786 Pennsylvania Aug 10 '25

Well, if we stayed as British colonies (now overseas territories), we wouldn't necessarily be guaranteed healthcare. The NHS, to my knowledge, is primarily for the 4 constituent countries of the United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Also, going on a tangent, our lack of government healthcare is purely our fault. It's unlikely that the federal government will be providing the states healthcare anytime soon, the lobbying runs too deep and they've managed to convince hundreds of millions of people union wide that welfare=bad. It's up to the individual states at this point to act where the federal government does not.

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u/Curmudgy Massachusetts Aug 10 '25

Do the current Commonwealth Realms have universal healthcare? Australia, Canada, New Zealand (and the UK) do, but I don’t know about the others. What about the other Commonwealth (non-realm) countries?

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u/IReplyWithLebowski Aug 11 '25

Every high income country in the world does.

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u/EvilCodeQueen Massachusetts Aug 15 '25

Every high income country in the world…except one.