Well, I live in Canada and I would say it is mostly a good thing. Yes you can choose any doctor and go to any hospital. The care is generally excellent, although there can be wait times for non-emergency things. Most things are covered and for those things that are not, most people have extended health coverage. Infertility treatment, in the province where I live, is not covered. Unfortunately my extended health also does not cover it. However, all ultrasounds and visits are covered so it is much cheaper. Per cycle our IVF is $4000 and ICSI $900. Drugs are $2000 and my extended health covers the cheaper ones. There are people who complain about our health care, but I personally like that everyone is covered and that doctors don't have to make a decision as to who to treat. I bet you will find others who will disagree with me, though! When Canadians picked the number one all time hero of our country, they voted for Tommy Douglas (Keifer Sutherland's grandfather) He is considered to be the father of universal health care.

I live in Alberta, and I guess for is its not really completley FREE, we pay $123 every three months for family coverage, which covers the basics, ER and Dr. visits, u/s, x-rays, etc. We do have things like Blue Cross etc to cover medicines and stuff, but like Rachm said we can choose which Dr we see and things like that. I dont think the quality suffers from the universal healthcare. Right now we are WAY understaffed in Alberta, if I had a choice I'd take Saskatchewan's healthcare over Alberta's, but I love Alberta and the only other place I'd live is B.C. I'm a west coast girl.