I live in Germany, which has universal health insurance but actually allows people to opt between the public insurance or a private insurer. I'm privately insured. The premiums are higher than the German public plan but far lower than what I as a freelancer was paying in the USA before I emigrated. Since arriving in Germany, I have had surgery for a meniscus tear and my gall bladder has been removed. In both cases, I chose the doctor I wanted and I was able to schedule an appointment at least as quickly as in the USA. I would occasionally check back with relatives who are doctors in the USA, showing them MRI scans or test results, and they were always impressed first at the quality of the treatment (for example the quality of the scans) as well as the price of the treatment. Medication costs are also far lower here: I have to take Irbesartan and Amlodipine for high blood pressure, and, again, the doctors I know in the USA are consistently impressed at the price differential, even for these two medications that have been around for ages and which should be cheap in the US as well. I get very sad when I read about the healthcare debate in the US -- the falsehoods that people disseminate about the quality of care in countries with universal healthcare aren't just irritating to me personally because I know they're not true; what bothers me the most is the knowledge that millions of Americans are not getting the quality of care that they are entitled to as human beings because of all this misinformation. A friend of mine (American) from high school died before she reached the age of 40 because she couldn't afford the proper care for her diabetes. I've never heard of anything like that happening in Germany. Americans deserve better.