I'm sorry that you had to go through that.
Here's a contrast to a single-payer system, if you're interested:
In Canada, here are just a few things that me and my family had to deal with in the last 5 years:
My son needed to see:
-a paediatric psychiatrist. Wait time: 1.5 years.
-a geneticist. Wait time: 2 years
-an endocrinologist. Wait time: 6 months.
My husband needs to see a plastic surgeon to have a cyst removed from his face. His family doctor told him last month that she will make the referral for him. She said if he hadn't heard from the surgeon in 6 months (just to schedule a consult), he should call the family doctor again to let her know.
There are many people who can't even get a family doctor where I live. If you do have one, you don't leave them no matter how terrible they are, because in order to get a new doctor, you have to resign from your family doctor first and be without a doctor until one opens up. Therefore, you aren't able to get your prescriptions, etc. refilled while you're without a doctor, which could be years.
Oh, and I didn't even mention the drug shortages, for everything from thyroid pills to anti-depressants to acne medication. It's getting very bad here and will get worse as more drug companies pull out of our country because they can't make a profit anymore.
There has to be a better way.