Re: "a tribute to the NHS"?
"A professor's salary doesn't stretch very far. And if he'd had to rely on private insurance, or a much diminished public health service, where healthcare was doled out in accordance with ability to pay, rather than need, then perhaps he would never have been able to contribute so significantly to human society."
At least that parses as English, unlike the utterly illiterate A/C whose post immediately follows mine.
A professor's salary stretches further than many. Though not, I imagine, so far as to cover his lifetime costs.
But more to the point, his extraordinarily-deep-pocketed employer would surely have sponsored his care. If not for completely altruistic reasons, then for showcase reasons, exactly the same as the NHS.
I speak as someone who is not rich (I'm still renting a home in my mid-50s), yet contributed a five-figure sum towards my mother's operation. I'd have considered that well-spent if she'd made a recovery (she was round about contemporary with Hawking). The reality for a family without Hawking's distinction is that the NHS prevented that by stringing us along with empty promises.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
