I've been following this thread with interest as well and did post a little earlier re the Canadian system. My comments may have been lighthearted previously but after the previous exchange, I can safely say that I am glad to be practicing as a family physician here in Canada. There is no insurance company deciding for me what is a necessary investigation and covering the costs (or not) accordingly. I simply order whatever my clinical judgement has decided is in the best interest of the patient. The patient never has to be concerned regarding payment. Sure we don't have MRIs in every clinic and if you need your shoulder instability investigated, you may have to wait, but your clinician is worried about a potential tumor, then your scan is expedited and given first priority.

Universal health care essentially covers all your health care costs from cradle to grave regardless of your socioeconomic status (this does not include some ancillary services such as physio or psychology which has some restrictions in terms of public funding and patients must rely on third party health insurance). Anyone can have access to the top physicians in any field and benefit from the same standard of care without having to worry about how they are going to pay for it.

Every system has its limitations and Canadian health care is not above that. There are always issues with longer wait times for nonemergency cases and a shortage of health care professionals to name a couple. And although we may complain at times, overall Canadians are fairly proud of universal health care and it is undoubtedly part of our national identity.