Just so's ya know, there is a lot of controversy doing the rounds here because of a rather higher than expected (think Governmental f*ck-up) influx in non Euro immigrants and our borders are now fully open (1st Jan) for a further influx of fully legal eastern Europeans that the NHS is falling apart at the seams... there is serious talk of forcing non-residents to have to pay for treatment, albeit almost impossible to have to police... due to Euro laws any Bulgarian or Romanian may now enter the UK for work and will (shortly) be able to claim benefits and free NHS treatment from now... the last major influx ('04) was Polish and that resulted in them now being the third highest population in the UK from the viewpoint of place of birth; 2nd being Indian, 4th being Pakistani... the Gov has no true idea of what will happen... ten times as many Poles came in compared to what was expected...
Hence the request for advice on travel here from the USA because he may need the cover in advance...