Our health care is great but not perfect. Is anyone's perfect?
There are doctor shortages, wait times etc.
Also medical is covered but not dental, eyes, orthotics (ie. back or knee brace) or prescriptions. You also pay for ambulance trips. You need private-insurance, work insurance or pay out of pocket for those. Oh IVF is not covered either, except Quebec, and I'm not sure they are still funding that.
Every province (state) deals with health care differently and there can be slight differences between areas.
Prescriptions can get expensive. I know someone who can be hospitalized and the cost is covered but if she is not admitted one shot costs $3000.
Some special and new treatments are not covered and it takes a while for those new treatments to become the standard. Those are probably the people you hear that travel to the US or mexico for treatment. Also, cosmetic surgery isn't covered, no should it be.
Generally, when me or my family has needed care we are happy. I do have a family doctor and found an OBGYN when needed. My C-section was fully covered, not my "plan" but I never had to question what things cost. Oh, yeah, I had a small private en-suite room too. My mom paid a little extra for the larger private room with the full bed for guests. I think some mid-wife costs are also covered but that really varies by area. My SIL in the US had health insurance but no birth coverage. The doc suggested an unnecessary c-section. She was fine with a natural birth, her 4th. One day in the hospital, natural birth $5000 out of pocket. The C-sec would have been $10-20K. I can't imagine a doctor up-selling. Oh wait,... I can, I go to the dentist.
I had an emergency CT scan recently after waiting about 5h in the ER, saw the Doc at the 2h mark. In a 6 month period I have been followed up by an appropriate tests and a specialist 3x & all is good.
I think mental health is very hard to deal with and I have been somewhat disappointed for some family members.
IF you can walk into the ER you don't belong there & then you may wait 12h. But there is a shortage of clinics or proper education of where most people should go for a "minor emergency" (that's an oxymoron, but you know what I mean). There is now a good web site that shows ER wait times in our area. Currently 30 min at the Children's, 1 h at the one closest to me but 3:45 at another major hospital. And we can go to any hospital. I have 11 ER choices in the greater area. Don't you have some weird thing in the states where you can only go to some hospitals? I might pick a small suburban one for stitches, but I will go to the University Hospital if its serious.
But the huge thing is I know NO ONE that has had to declare medical bankruptcy. 62% of US bankruptcies are for medical reasons.
http://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(09)00404-5/abstractIf you have a disabled child or a conic illness and can't work the extra costs would add up.
But I can't even imagine that a yearly check-up, ER visits, birth, cancer treatment, heart surgery and trauma surgery would not be covered.
No one asks to be sick. Sure there are lifestyle choices, so we tax the hell out of cigarettes and booze.
PS. I've never been critical of MMM before but if his family's health took a turn for the worse they would be welcome back in Canada. Our health care is a very big safety net for a Mustacian.