British Columbian here. In 2010 I spent over $5000 on prescriptions + dental + optical. I'm pretty sure 2011 will be in the same vicinity. In 2012 I have a good chance of hitting $10k given that I'm thinking of getting an insulin pump.

Yeah, it's nice to know that if I ever end up in a hospital I won't need to worry about what that costs, but don't make the mistake of thinking that our public health system means that private health insurance isn't a very good thing to have.