You Canadians have it lucky in that respect. Like Blankslate said, even edging the US ever so slightly towards UHC was a humongous battle, because a system like in Canada would mean that the healthcare insurance providers would die off, and they'll spend as much money as it takes to line the pocketbooks of congress for that to not happen. Even though many are technically "not for profit", they would rather keep the money and spend it internally than lower their costs for insurance. The US medical system is unbelievably screwed up right now compared to most other first world nations, just for the US to adapt an electronic medical record system has been decades in the making and still isn't complete yet.
My grandmother died pretty much due to a lack of communication between doctors regarding what medication she was taking, so I'm still bitter over the whole thing to say the least. Healthcare costs in the US have been spiraling out of control with no end in sight. The original version of Obamacare wasn't nearly so screwed up as what actually got passed (a complete monster of a bill with a ton of extra crap in it).
The completely ridiculous part is that UHC would benefit the vast majority of americans over the current system, but somehow people are manipulated into believing it's bad for them - it's one of the most bizarre aspects of american politics that I just can't wrap my brain around.
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