I have friends and family in Europe and Canada. One relative in Canada was told that they would have to wait several months for an x-ray needed for diagnosis (and might die by that time), so came to the US for treatment instead. A relative in Europe was told that he was too old to qualify for treatment, so he came to the US for treatment instead.
From what I've been told, some treatment options that are expensive or not-fully covered in the US may not even be available at all in Europe or Canada.
So, while the US has much work to do, I think the more socialized systems of some other countries are not better in all respects.
I was raised with Medicare, but I see nothing but problems with how it is administered. And, I hope that your country doesn't follow our mistakes...
Why is it structured this way? Why don't they just directly bill the insurance without requiring large outlays upfront from the patient?
There is help for prescription costs - people can get deductions for long term meds.
Luckily, most people do not pay prescription cost. About 80% of people on a prescription have some exemption or other.
There are big problems with medication non-compliance, even for serious life-critical meds (cancer meds; HIV meds; transplant surgery meds) but it seems the cost (free or high cost) is not relevant - non-compliance is similar in the UK and in the US.
There are some problems with the English NHS, but "getting access to meds" is not one of them. Unless you count fantastically expensive new cancer meds that add maybe a week of poor quality life.
In our case, we are very lucky. Both my Aunt and stepmother have good drug plans that refund their expenses. However, their treatments still cost thousands of dollars out of pocket. They're relatively lucky - they're both seniors who were well prepared and highly insured. Even luckier, they don't have dependents.
I can imagine many, many circumstances under which someone with a family, even in our relatively good health care environment simply could not afford many of the drugs they need. For example, in many cases, complete drug coverage is a premium offering through private insurers. I'm not sure how many healthy people in their mid-30s would really consider premium health insurance a huge priority, especially if they have families. Rather, the tendency could be to assume that their good health will hold and they won't need insurance.
In response to your valid criticism, I do agree with most of what you say. But, I would also argue that cancer is an asshole and, if I were in a situation where saving my life could bankrupt my family, I'd sure pray that my community put helping me out above making a political statement about the quality of prescription drug coverage in Canada!!