[TomMarius]

It is not an exception, it's almost the same at least in Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Austria. It is not true that you'd be always covered - you'd be covered only if you're registered in the system and entitled to be a part of it (by the virtue of being a resident); if you have your residence outside the EU, you're entitled to nothing; if you have your place of residence in other EU country, you're entitled only to treatment of immediately life threating issues - you still need travel insurance to travel to other EU countries if you want e.g. dentist covered, also you can't injure yourself doing sports and such, that would not be covered at all by the basic insurance.

It's true that you'd be covered even if you never paid but you have to be entitled to be a part of the system - and thus you're insured. Also the money for treatment will be later demanded from you, on top of insurance payments and interest (personal experience); of course there are options for the socially less able (the government pays insurance for them, that's why it might seem free) but as a software engineer, no it's not true.

If you read my comment properly you'd know that I'm talking about uninsured people.