Why would they have to give up their private insurance. Up here in Canukistan we have universal health care and employers give extended plans and we an buy more to cover dental, chiro etc through many plans like Blue Cross etc.
Here in Alberta everyone gets free basic medical where we used to have to pay for it based on income. About $40-$60/mth for a family of three or $25 for a single person. Earn less than 12G/yr or so and it was free before.
You were stuck with the bill if you needed an ambulance and that's not cheap.
Lats year I needed an ambulance because we had a snowstorm the night before and my 200' driveway was under 5' snow drifts. Turned out I had a blown appendix and after running thru 3 hospitals with about 500 miles of transport got all fixed up and got a bill for zip. Not a freakin' penny. Even got free wifi all the way!
My wife has extended medical thru her provincial disability and I'm on her plan. I'm on federal disability but got refused provincial which I'm still contesting. I'm way up in northern Alberta and have to deal with imported doctors that don't seem to have a clue. I have horror stories. I have chronic fatigue or something like it that has gone un-diagnosed for almost 10 years and what I call 'nap attacks' that hit me 4 or 5 times a week. Haven't worked for about 6 years and living on $800/mth CPP-D. I'd get double that if I could get the provincial supplement. I'd rather get cured and go back to work driving Super-B tankers and netting $8G/mth. I'll be 65 in a bit over a year then get even less.
It ain't perfect but I won't go bankrupt or die untreated from a serious illness no matter how bad.