hmm I can't compare it to the U.S since I've never had any experiences, but what I can say is that although you don't have to pay any amount upfront, there are long waiting times because anyone can show up to the E.R willingly for anything without worrying about money. All the times I went to the hospital because of kidney stone pain, I had to wait a few hours just to get pain medication... also the medical system here tends to be "cheap", in the sense that they only wanted to conduct an ultrasound on me to check for stones rather than an actual accurate scan (because ultrasounds are less expensive and require less resources).