The Universal Health Care (Insurance) debate in the US

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Last night while I was on here doing brainless things, Richard watched something on health ins. So I was kept up listening to stories of people in Canada who couldn't get health care on time. First was the man who needed hip surgery ASAP and was scheduled for 2012, but was able to come here, negotiate the price down, pay cash and have the surgery the next day. Second was a woman in labor, no beds in the hospital, who was flown to Colorado and had the baby there. Honestly, I was expecting some kind of disaster story like the one on the video from Palestine (ie she got there too late, lost the baby, etc.), but no. But anyway it turned into a monologue about how we like our freedoms, to choose our doctor, etc. And I agreed, right now I can go to any MD I want and my insurance will pay them, either the in network amount or the lower out of network amount. Certain treatments are excluded (experimental or whatever), but in general if I want to see Dr. A and the wait is too long, I can call around until I find somebody who doesn't have a wait. But it's the security net that I don't have that worries me. I won't even get into how most insurances won't pay for chiropractic or naturopathy. I'm talking about pre-existing conditions exclusions. If I lose my job, I have certain security nets. 1) I can continue to pay for the insurance via Cobra, but it's expensive. 2) Richard's employer's insurance is obligated to pick us up. Employer insurances don't have pre-existing conditions exclusions. But if we both lose our jobs and we can't afford the Cobra, that's where it gets gnarly. What do I go to the doctor for now? Heart condition. Fibromyalgia. Herniated disk. Arthritis. Female problems. All of those things would be excluded from coverage if I were to try and get private insurance. I can go for checkups and for new conditions, basically. Better than nothing, but if the heart condition, just as an example, developed from a benign condition to something serious, I'm in trouble. But hey, less than 14 years I can get Medicare and that all goes away. And that's what all the people who are unemployed or self employed have to deal with. But the bottom line of his monologue was that socialized medicine is bad, conditions in countries that have it are bad, we don't want it. We need to find some other way to get people covered. All very well and good, if true, but can we afford to give everybody the kind of coverage that I have now. I don't think so. Are the scare stories true? Some of them probably. Is it as bad as he thinks it is? Probably not. Are we spoiled? Yep, no doubt about it! So, if you're in the US, what is your take on the whole thing? What do you think the best solution is? And if you're in a country that has some form of universal health care, what do you like about it? What do you dislike about it?