The debate over the future of health care in America has been growing since the announcement of the Barack Obama health plan. However, in recent weeks the critics of the plan have turned to look at systems in other countries, including the NHS. Their criticisms of the NHS, have sometimes been shocking and upsetting, and unfairly distort the vital role it plays in the UK.  Some have even gone as far as to say it is ‘evil’, with others suggesting it is run by ‘death panels’.

Among these critics is Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan who whilst appearing on US television even went as far as to say, “I see this massive encroachment of the state… this huge power grab by the state machine… It is exactly a Marxist system”. Even though David Cameron previously denied that “under the Conservatives, the NHS will be transformed beyond recognition into a system based on medical insurance.”

The “we love the NHS” hashtag has been used by thousands of British people to defend our health service. The phenomenon was driven on by comments about how treatment is allocated, including a reference to scientist Dr Stephen Hawking, or by statements made by public figures in America.

However, the response made up of personal stories of the NHS coupled with why it is so important have been flooding in. There have even been reports that the volume of messages overwhelmed Twitter, causing it to crash.

Amongst the thousands of tweets there were some from the Downing Street account, the Prime Minister said, "NHS often makes the difference between pain and comfort, despair and hope, life and death. Thanks for always being there". Sarah Brown added,"#welovetheNHS - more than words can say", and
Andy Burnham posted, "Over the moon about strong support for NHS - an institution I will defend to my dying day".

Twitter is a social networking site that lets you send messages of 140 characters, or tweets.

If you haven’t used it before you can sign up for an account at twitter.com

Whether you're already on Twitter, or have just signed up, make sure that you follow The Labour Party at twitter.com/uklabour