[TteFAboB]

I'll take it you mean a country where a public service exists because truly socialized medicine (understanding as the complete absence of a private sector) can only be found in 2nd world (and former) countries. Personally I've only known for long the Italian and Brazilian systems.

1. How does your system work? Anything special about getting seen in a clinic, or do you just make an appointment, show up and that's it free service?

It doesn't. Just kidding. The Italian system is in decay, has recently had to drop subsidies on medications and has murdered or permanently damaged more people than the Brazilian so I'll focus on the latter (speaking of the former will put me in hospital).

Make an appointment or show up and that's it. As Mr. P says free is a way of saying it because the money comes from the mass. Obviously not every treatment, surgery or medication is covered or instantly available. Some things are only partially subsidized. Some are not available at all.

2. Are wait times for doctors visits short or too long?

Depends entirely on the hospital and treatment at hand. Some hospitals and clinics are more cluttered than others and have longer waiting lines. Some surgeries have longer waiting lines than others. There's everything from minutes or hours to days to weeks to months of waiting.

3. Are diagnostic test readily available or do they take many months of waiting list? Is access to routine care and clinics as easy as life threatening and care for significantly morbid conditions (liver failure, heart failure)?

Again it depends. Basic diagnostic tests will have shorter waiting times than complex procedures in general but some hospitals or clinics may take longer than others. The second question depends too (getting repetitive?). In general the higher the demand for "routine care" in contrast with a static, possibly insufficient public supply the more difficult access becomes. Care to morbid conditions will depend on the amount of patients at the hospital, if the emergency is cluttered the treatment might suffer some delay unless death is imminent. They'll take you in anyway in death cases, even if there's only room for you at the corridors.

4. Do you thrust your doctors?

No, I slash them. Just kidding. No, I put more trust on veterinarians. I'm kidding again. It's the "D" word again. The good hospitals I'd trust though there's only a few of them country-wide (in Italy it doesn't matter since travel is quick). The more "professional" hospitals have good staff while the smaller, secluded or unprestigious ones have death and medical error written all over them. The doctor is only there because he accepted to participate in whatever corruption scheme is running and it doesn't really matter if his performance is acceptable or terrible.

5. Are they all equal in your eyes are or some doctors/hospitals better than others? If so, do you get to choose the doctor/clinic/hospital that you wish to go to, or are you forced to see a certain doctor/etc by the program?

Damn why didn't you asked this before? :rotfl:
If you've read me so far I guess it's not necessary to answer the first question. But it depends on availability. In general you are "forced" to go where they find a spot for you or where the treatment is available, the cost of the trip may be covered or not.

You cannot maintain a wide network of public hospitals in a large country unless you raise taxes to the roof and make healthcare your ratio essendi, if you will, the purpose all citizens live for. You have a few excellent public hospitals but those come at the cost of a worse network which cannot match the market. Balancing quality versus quantity and making sure there is enough money left to subsidize enough private clinics has proven difficult but where successful acceptable. Specialized hospitals find a good source of income to depend less on taxes by offering their special services to insurance companies. In return this cycle allows the state to actually provide the same insurance to those who can't afford it increasing competition among hospitals to break the monopoly within the public system which can then compete with the private system.

The system is very good in theory and where it works far better than Italy's, which is quite an accomplishment indeed. It just needs to be wiped clean of corruption and managed by professionals who can manage a hospital to organize and execute a budget efficiently and reduce waste to a minimum, even if that means asking for volunteers or handing the control to a decent medical university free of ideology as happens occasionally when the incompetent public employees fail their job or prove uncapable or unwilling to reduce waste. The future could be very bright.