Wow!!!! I can't imagine walking out of a doctor's office with a bill. Especially a 3 hour visit of sitting and waiting for $500. Sounds like a shady mechanic deal. Living in Canada I have never had to experience the pay for health system. We are covered for all health care including basic prescriptions for citizens under 25 (Ontario). The government pays for all health care using money from our taxes.
Your story reminds me of the birth of my son. It was a regular check up appointment for my wife at 32 weeks. When she was being checked out the doctor noticed that her blood pressure was high and that she was very swollen. He immediately told us to head to the hospital where they could check her out to make sure all was ok. Shortly after arriving and a few test were done we found out that she had preeclampsia. We were told that she would be staying at the hospital for the remainder of her pregnancy. She was not excited to hear about her next 8 weeks in hospital. It turned out she wouldn't have to wait. During her first night there our son's heart rate dropped several times. The doctors determined that the baby was in distress and that he might need to come out ASAP. She was rushed to a different hospital that deals with these cases and by the next day our son was born through an emergency c-section. It turns out that he had his umbilical cord wrapped around his foot and that he was continually cutting off his own circulation. He was a strapping 2lbs 13oz. Not much bigger than my hand. He ended u spending the first month of his life in ICU. 16 years later he is almost a grown man.
I think of that experience and how lucky we were. I can't imagine what our bill would have been at the end of it all. A scary thought indeed.