Saturday's papers

The brutal truth about the American healthcare system is the lead in the Independent following the exchanges across the Atlantic on our NHS system.

The paper reports from the The LA Forum, the arena that once hosted sell-out Madonna concerts, has been transformed – for eight days only – into a vast field hospital.

In the week that Britain's National Health Service was held aloft by Republicans as an "evil and Orwellian" example of everything that is wrong with free healthcare, these extraordinary scenes in Inglewood, California yesterday provided a sobering reminder of exactly why President Barack Obama is trying to reform the US system.

The Mail also trumpets our health service.Under the headline The NHS surgeons who saved 15 lives in record-breaking transplant op using just TWO donors it reports how

Surgeons are celebrating a European first with five lifesaving transplant operations from two donors in 24 hours.
In a stunning display of teamwork, NHS doctors and nurses gave hope to three seriously-ill children, including an eight-month-old baby, and two adults given less than two years to live.

The Times leads with the week's other transatlantic battle as relatives of the Lockerbie victims were denied their final chance of discovering the truth yesterday when the only man convicted of the atrocity abruptly dropped his appeal.

According to the Telegraph

Grieving families will be hit by a new stealth tax next month as the Government raises the interest rate on Inheritance Tax.

Meanwhile the Guardian reports that shadow chancellor, George Osborne in an interview with the paper suggested

that a future Conservative government would act to curb pay excesses across the financial services industry.

The Express leads with the story that

Police chiefs were last night accused of a scandalous misuse of taxpayers’ money after helping to set up a special support group for sex-change staff.

adding that

The organisation was founded to help serving and retired police officers and civilian staff with “gender identity issues”. But critics last night accused the police authorities of wasting time and resources on politically correct initiatives instead of concentrating on fighting crime.