Having experience the healthcare systems in the US, UK and Canada, I am anxious to see this movie.
Here's my take on the three:
US: best health SERVICE bar none IF you have good insurance. Great doctors and if I didn't like the one I had, another one was readily available. Our daughter had some issues and we had every single test available as a matter of course. We had good insurance though and none of us ever came down with a debilitating disease.
However. One of my good friends had breast cancer and although she had insurance, it almost put her in the poor house. She had a $500 deductible on one of her chemo drugs so her 'insured' treatment was very expensive. They barely held onto their house, managed to sell it for twice what they bought it for, moved to South Carolina, paid off all the medical bills, paid cash for a house and were able to only work part time. But they had to leave SoCal because of her medical bills.
Canada: provides good care, tests etc.. IF you can find a doctor. There is an extreme shortage of doctors (for reasons I could go into ad nauseum if anyone cares to listen but I won't here). Also, the health care industry is very top heavy (lots of baby boomers who have made their way to the top and have yet to retire or die) and their idea of making cuts is to cut the service end of healthcare (janitors and my personal favourite, nurses). For years, they have made cuts to medical school places, closed beds in hospitals, consolidated health care in rural communities all in the name of saving money. Where there has been the biggest erosion of health care is quite apparent if you go into hospital or if you are trying to find a family doctor. many doctors retire and don't tell their patients because there is no one to give them to, so one day you have a GP, and the next, you don't. continuity of care is really difficult.
Basic preventative care is, however still available and is still pretty good. You get treatment if you need it and it is available to everyone. There are no two tiers (although they're trying hard). If you need an emergency procedure, generally you get it. But there may be a wait. There is a lot of using the emergency rooms as primary care facilities. You get a lot of kids with fevers going to the emergency room because there is no alternative. But they still get the care.
UK: we're still working it out but from what we can tell, preventative health care is non-existent. Good healthcare is what you pay for and you're lucky if you get what you need if you don't have supplemental insurance. If you are in a good council, you have pretty good care. Bad council, bad care.
I have one doctor here who I do like but we have yet to really explore (need!) the healthcare system. But my son's braces are covered under the NHS which would never happen in the US or Canada.
