Well, yes, we pay a lot more in taxes in Canada, but some things are free via the government that grabs all that money.
My person experience is I spent 3 weeks in December in hospital due to Sepsis. Cost to me, zero, nada, $0. (well, I had to pay $45 for an ambulance ride). No special insurance required, it was covered by government. At home, I had to use a portable IV pump for a few weeks with antibiotics that cost $3000 a week. Cost to me, zero, nada, $0.
So it is all relative. More socialist countries provide more services at no cost. The more capitalist countries require you to buy health insurance, which is not cheap. If insurance bails on you, you pay out of pocket.
There are pros and cons to all these "systems" in various countries. Not going to dispute that.
What bugs me more is our gas prices and taxes on top of that. We produce oil, yet get ripped off at the pumps. Federal government even taxes the provincial tax on fuel (tax on the tax). That burns my butt....
As an aside, felling much better now, but I still have potential surgery in the near future. Cost will still be zero...
I spent six days in the Yarmouth Nova Scotia hospital in 2018.
My USA insurance picked up all costs.
Bill was $22K CAD.
My USA insurance cost is about $5,000 CAD per year.
If I had paid 15% HST in the USA that year I would have likely paid about $14K CAD.
Assuming that I did pay $5,000 CAD in US state sales tax, I estimate that I am still about $4K CAD ahead.
The biggest and best benefit for me is that I can go to
any hospital I may choose,
at any time, without any prior approval.
My best comparative example is when your BC MP, Jack Layton, died of metastasized prostate cancer in 2011.
Proton radiation for prostate cancer was NOT available in Canada then, and is still NOT available in Canada.
Jack Layton simply did NOT have state of the art proton treatment available to him!
There are currently 39 proton radiation treatment sites in the US.
The cost for my treatment in 1996 was $65,000 CAD (cost now is in excess of $125K CAD).
I was 55 then, and am 81 now!
I paid a $2250 CAD equivalent deductible in 1996.
Having been a seasonal resident of Nova Scotia, for a number of years, I have very carefully observed just how the Canadian health care system works.
I realize how fortunate I am to be able to make my own health care choices, rather than having the government select them for me.
I suspect that Jack Layton, and his wife Olivia Chow, would have chosen a proton radiation cancer treatment option, had it been offered.
Interestingly, former Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams chose Miami for heart surgery, and he certainly had to pay his own way.