It definitely happens, especially for things like plastic and reconstructive surgery.
Some hospitals in the US are free for everybody (some research hospitals and hospitals for sick kids) and I assume that would extend to Europeans.
Routine GPs appointments can generally be gotten within a week, and emergency[1] appointments (where we wait until the GP is done at the end of the surgery, and are then seen) if the triage nurse determines you need to be seen sooner can be gotten on the day. You also have the option of speaking to your local pharmacist, many of whom can prescribe medication for certain conditions if appropriate, or otherwise point you at suitable over-the-counter primary care.
A number of places also have walk-in centres for minor ailments where you don't need an appointment, and they generally have long opening hours (8am-10pm, 365 days a year for my local one). Urgent dental care is also available 24/7 in many places.
You may have to wait longer for non-emergency / non-priority / time-insensitive treatments - my routine MRIs have a lead time of about 8 weeks, and a specialist referral can be something in the region of 6-12 weeks (sometimes longer) - but I think that's a fair trade off. You do of course also have the option of paying for private care as well if you don't want to wait (often NHS doctors / semi-retired doctors working evenings in my limited experience).
[1] bit of a misnomer really - urgent but not critical is more accurate
Also when my wife had to get an MRI done going private wasn't that much quicker than NHS - you still had to wait a couple weeks through her private health insurance at work.
My wait for a specialist referral is 2-3 days and any delay is usually on my end.
There are just some things the US healthcare system accidentally does much better than Europe.
Additionally, when I lived in the US, we got a special Dutch health insurance plan for temporary expats. They sent us a letter that if one of us ever had to go to the hospital, they'd fly them over to the Netherlands unless the situation required immediate attention.