I am a survivor of socialized medicine - Part I

I have two pointed examples of how and why socialized medicine can be harmful to you. This is the story of the first. If you have served on active duty in the military, you are already aware of the lines and general difficulty in getting anything done. Every time you are sick, you are required to go to the hospital and get a doctor's note. Why not, it's free, right? So you go to the doctor at 6am, and wait in line to get seen until 9am or 10am, because everyone else on post has to do the same thing.
When I was 19 years old, I was stationed in Germany. Like a lot of folks stationed in Germany, I enjoyed my fair share of "adult beverages". At a festival in Februaryish (it's been ten years now) I hurt my ankle going into a funhouse, believe me, this was not my finest hour. It hurt quite a bit, and rather than go to the emergency room (your only choice on a weekend), I waited until Monday to go to sick call in the morning.
I finally get in to see the doctor, and I'm told that this is a really bad sprain (it was swollen and turning all kinds of colors, but I knew it wasn't broken) and that I should rest off of it as much as possible. I left with a note not to run for two weeks and some Motrin. With the sheer amount of Motrin I was given in my time in the Army, I could start my own drug store.
Two weeks go by, and the pain is still not getting better. What's even worse is that now, when I walk around, my ankle will occasionally turn in on itself. So I make a doctor's appointment, which takes me a solid week to get. I go to the doctor, ankle still swollen, and am told that I pulled a ligament or tendon (this doctor had X-ray vision, because I wasn't given an MRI) and that I would need some physical therapy. I'm given another note about running, and sent on my way. I have to wait three days for the referral to get into the computer, and then it take 3 weeks to get in to see the physical therapist. It's now the middle of March. I go through two months of strengthening exercises, and ultrasonic massages, and still I'm having pain and instability in the joint.
In May, I go back to my regular doctor, and he refers me to podiatry. I can't get into see the podiatrist until almost July. He then looks at my ankle, and tells me I need an MRI to confirm, but chances were that I had some fairly severe tendon/ligament damage. I don't get the MRI until August, but I've gotten smarter, I make the appointment for the podiatrist when I've get the MRI appointment. About two weeks after my MRI, I go back in to see the podiatrist, who tells me that I have torn the peroneus brevis and peroneus longus and the band of tissue that hold them together, and I will need surgery to correct this. I ask when surgery can be scheduled; he tells me I will have to see another doctor, because he is getting ready to get out of the Army.
I'm now referred to an orthopedic surgeon, as there is only one podiatrist position at the military hospital. It takes me until October to see the orthopedic surgeon, who I dub Dr. F***** Useless. Dr. FU then decides that tendons that are ripped apart might magically fuse themselves back together if I am casted for five weeks. I can't even get a second opinion, because it would take me longer than five weeks to get an appointment, even if there were another independent orthopedic surgeon in the hospital, which at the time, there wasn't.
I get my cast off around Thanksgiving, where he then tells me he will do surgery on me, in two weeks. I was due to start clearing to go to North Carolina in two weeks, so I ask for a referral because the surgery was going to be fairly extensive, and I wouldn't be able to drive around doing all that was necessary to leave Germany with a cast, nevermind get my cast off before I left.
I get to Fort Bragg, NC at the end of January and go to sick call with my MRI, X-ray, and referral from Dr. FU. I immediately get a referral to podiatry on Bragg and see the doctor in March. He tells me he can perform surgery, but not until May. By the time I've had the surgery, it's been 15 months since the original injury and in post op recovery, the doctor tells me he has had to extend my incision further than my MRI (that at that point was nine months old) indicated due to the length of time between MRI and injury.
This is a small example of what socialized medicine can do for you.
I would have had this problem taken care of before my MRI had taken place with private insurance.
It makes sense that there would be socialized medicine within the military, I'm not arguing for that at all. But try and imagine competing against the number of people that live in Philadelphia for an appointment with a limited number of podiatrists or orthopedic surgeons, and the two months can easily turn into four or six, or even twelve.