Is the health insurance in Canada as good as its made out to be?

Ive heard that even though the health care is free you may have to wait a long time for an appointment
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Our health care system has its good and its bad points. The reasons I would never want to lose our health care system: when you go to the hospital or doctor, no one worries how much money you have in your account, if you're at the right hospital for your coverage.. you just go. It's universal so everyone is covered, and people at the lower end of the income scale have their medical premiums subsidized. I don't pay any co-pays when I see my doctor. If I need to see a specialist, I get sent.. no checking with my insurance to see if they cover it. What our system desperately needs to fix: The wait times. It's very sad, but many people ARE waiting far too long to see specialists, to have surgeries done, etc. Sadly, wait times in ERs can easily be four or more hours. Not good.. The system is over-worked and underfunded. The doctors, nurses and technicians are hard-working and for the most part caring and wonderful, but they're caseloads are far too high. There's a shortage of General practician doctors in certain areas, and god forbid you live outside a large city. I don't blame our universal system on the problems, but rather years of mismanagement and fat cats who eat at the trough. Oh.. and when you say our system is "free" - it's not free. we pay for it through our medicare preminums AND our taxes. No, we don't pay for the individual appointments and visits to the hospital, etc., but don't for a second think that it's free.
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