I think for us who live in other western countries, it is hard to understand why there is so much animosity towards national health care in the U.S. Our system is not perfect either, but in general the standard is very high.
In Norway, where I live, all hospital treatment is 100% free. Our primary health care service (your doctor) are almost all private practitioners that have an agreement with the state to get reimbursed. You can choose whatever doctor you want in your home municipality, but you can only switch doctors a couple of times in one year. You can also go to any of many completely private practices, but then you have to pay the full fee yourself, with no state subsidy.
Going to your regular doctor is NOT completely free either however, we currently have to pay a fee of about 20 Euros (25 dollars) for a doctor's apointment, which in Norway is a fairly small amount of money (it's a little more than what a low-paying job gives you for 1 hours work). Prescription drugs are subsidized, but not completely free either.
The beauty of the system, in my opinion, is that you DO have to pay a little to get your medicines and to go see the doctor, which probably prevent a lot of people from running to the doctor for just a cold. However, if you have real medical issues, and need to see the doctor a lot, there is a roof on how much you have to pay out of your own pocket in a year, currently about 200 Euros. After you've spent 200 Euros on doctor appointments + prescription drugs in one year, you get a so called "free card", which means the state pays for whatever you need after that. This ensures that no one gets ruined on medical bills.
In addition, treatment of children under the age of 12, all doctor's appointments and checkups related to a pregnancy, testing and treatment of dangerous infectious diseases or sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, chlamydia etc is always free, as the government wants people to always go to the doctor and get tested when they suspect they have something like this.
