My American healthcare:

• Its so much more expensive under Trump. It went from $250/month for my family, to now $1100/month.

• My kid hurt themselves and we were in the urgent care waiting area for 2 hours. Then a professional looked him over, said they'll be fine, and gave us some expensive pain killer pills.

• I have to schedule my appointments 4-6 months in advance.

• I had to get a referral for some health services and after two weeks, they finally had a slot to actually start scheduling the appointment. Then they asked about my insurance and told me that they are out-of-network, and recommended another practice. I now have to wait another few more weeks, just to hopefully be seen.

I get the message. But this is incorrect. You don’t have shorter wait times in the US. 

In Canada some wait times, for non-emergency procedures and in high traffic areas are publicized, usually by the forces who would benefit from privatization.

I can quickly counter those anecdotes with anecdotes of my own: I have never waited long for medical care because I live in a low traffic area and I don’t seek low priority medical care.

What you actually have in the US is a greater opportunity for shorter wait times as the result of paying a premium…but you also have longer wait times and people foregoing care entirely that they would receive in Canada. 

I'm a physician in the US and had to wait 11 months for a dermatology appointment at the same hospital system I work at and the insurance owned by the same hospital system covered $95 of the $430 bill. We do not have it better than Canada, at all.

tbh that is underselling how terrible the American healthcare system is lol. die from waiting? more like die from being denied medically necessary procedures by a Prior Authorization team who has never met the patient they make these decisions for and has the authority to reject the demands and recommendations of physicians treating the patient. more like die from avoiding going to the ER because you don’t want to deal with even more debt, so you stay at home and “sleep it off.”

Us canucks are trying really hard to add dentalcare and pharmacare to our universal healthcare system.

Fuck insurance companies hurting people and bribing our government to make a quick buck.

Everyone deserves healthcare.

Shorter wait times thing is bullshit. All hospitals do Triage - the worse you are the faster you are seen

Been ER in both USA and Spain; USA for a kidney stone and Spain for severe panic attack we confused for a heart attack (were prone to those even at young age due to health condition) both had a wait time.

USA hospital: wait time was 15 minutes, hospital was not busy at all, no one to check on us while waiting. Overall experience 3/5. Costs ~4,3kusd

Spain hospital: wait time was 5 minutes, hospital was really busy but still had a nurse look over us and a few others while waiting. Overall experience 5/5. Costs 60€

There’s still a few things we don’t like how they do medical stuff here, but we also have the option of doing private health insurance and getting our own doctor out just paying for a doctor out right at a reasonable amount. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Edit: note we can’t get public insurance yet as we can’t pay taxes yet as an immigrant. Sucks, but those the dice. With public insurance the hospital would’ve been free :P

Shorter wait times, lol. No we don’t have shorter wait times. I was on a wait list to get an appointment. After 8 months, they called to see if I wanted to stay on the list, I said yes, and I never heard from them again.

Later, I had to wait almost a year for an appointment with a neurologist for a sleep disorder.

My follow up appointment with that neurologist will happen almost full year after my first appointment.

I've been in the ER in both for severe food poisoning. Same care in both, equivalent locations too.

In the US it cost $3000 minimum and I was put in the hallway and ignored for hours. In Canada I had to wait an hour or two longer to get seem, but I got better care and walked out afterwards like it was a Pokemon center. I prefer the latter, even in its Doug Forded state

Why would I want to live longer in america don't we suffer enough

I came down with flu symptoms this week and went to the local urgent care. Waited an hour to be seen, they did a rapid flu and covid swab and it came back negative. They told me that the flu strain going around right now doesn't test positive for a few days and that it's probably the flu given all of the symptoms. They told me that I am young and healthy enough so I should just take Tylenol and drink fluids and ride it out. All in all it took 2 hours and there was a $100 co-pay with my insurance that I pay out the ass for. No tamiflu script. This medical system is trash. Every time I get sick my wife urges me to go to urgent care and I'm like "no, they are completely unhelpful and it costs too much money"

I would be much more willing to go if it didn't cost so much and take so long.

One of these days something is actually going to be wrong, and my distrust for the medical system is going to land me in the hospital for something that was treatable.

It's easy to have shorter wait times when nobody can afford to go there in the first place.

I can’t believe my fellow Americans who are so worried about how much a real healthcare system would cost when we are getting crushed under the most expensive fucking system in the world. It’s like they take all the current price tags from our corrupt, bullshit system that doesn’t serve everyone and apply them to the whole population, completely ignoring the price negotiation power of single-payer and all the gouging and waste we get from the corporations.

As a Canadian I would like whatever France is doing

Stupid fucks don't understand the idea of doing a triage, and think it's an argument for the worst healthcare system.

As a Canadian, yeah, our wait times are rancid and they often get glossed over because of how bad America's healthcare is in comparison. Don't get me started on how Canadians will excuse any issue with the country because "at least we're not as bad as America" and shit like that.

But damn it, I'd still take our busted healthcare system over virtually NO healthcare system. Fuck paying to live. Oh wait, that's just capitalism.

I mean I know that long wait times exist in our system, but I've personally just never experienced them.

I broke my arm a couple years ago. Got to hospital around 8pm. Got painkillers immediately and a bed on the triage ward, stronger painkillers within 30 mins, got x-rays, consulted and then a Ketamine injection and had the arm set and bandaged within 3 hours, then was scheduled for surgery the next day when the non emergency surgeons are in. Went under at 11am the next day, had a plate put in and stiched up and was released by 5pm that day, so in and out in <24 hours.

And it cost me absolutely nothing.

The longest I've had to wait for something was 2 weeks to get a MRI done on my knee after I dislocated it.

We have shorter* wait times!

*If you can afford the premiums, otherwise enjoy jumping through months of bureaucratic hoops to get referrals so you can be put on a waiting list to even be considered being a patient for the few doctors available, who will also have multi-month long wait times between appointments because of how over burdened they are.

I emigrated from the US five years ago. The last year I lived there, I paid $13k for healthcare (including my deductible and premiums) as a healthy single adult in my 20s with one monthly prescription.

Absolutely not shorter wait times.

Americans enjoy the shortest wait times when they go the ER to find out they have stage 4 colon cancer.

From diagnosis to the grave is on average only a few months! 🇺🇸

Americans are simply not afraid of death and see healthcare as an unnecessary crutch and a sign of spiritual weakness!

Last year my family doctor quit from the hospital to open her own practice but unfortunately she's not in network with my insurance

I called the hospital to get an appointment (for a regular check up) with another doctor and none of their doctors 15 miles from me (2 big clinics and 2 small clinics) had any free appointments from May to December. The closest one was about 50 miles away with and the appointment and the waiting was 4 months

The wait time is a complete myth made up by the US. It can take months in the US to get an appointment with a PCP - if you don’t get shunted to an NP or something instead. Then more weeks for any specialized tests like an MRI. Which you have to pay a good chunk for even with insurance. Then weeks for whatever’s next, or followup visits.

If it’s an emergency, like any country, you can go to an ER/ED and be seen at a time based on severity of need. Difference is other countries will charge little to nothing, but in the US you will be charged quite a bit. Even more if your insurers decide you’re “out of network” or some such, or if they don’t outright deny your claims anyway.

But for non-emergency tests other than basic things like blood tests that don’t appear to require prompt intervention? Yeah. Weeks to months in most places.

Just bullshit made up by Big Med and Big Pharma regurgitated by politicians on their payroll to keep your $$$ flowing into the pockets of multi-million- and billionaires.

Is your hospital a sweet racecar bed tho?

I went to an ER for some potential heart issues. They treated me on site in a few hours, but didn't really diagnose anything - I had to go to my primary care doctor for that.

I had to wait 2 months to see him. Then I had to go get labs elsewhere a month later, and wait 2 more months to see my doctor for the results.

I w3nt to the hospital for a suspected heart issue, and didn't get my lab results back for 5 months. Turns out it was stress, and things have improved with anxiety meds, but if I'd actually had a heart issue I would have died.

I live in Texas and have "great insurance."

Oh - and they just dropped coverage for my doctor.

I don't know much about the US system, and I would chose the Canadian system any time, but ours sucks too, in a different way. Sure, if you break a leg or have cancer, you will be helped first and should not end up with crippling bills. However, I hope you don't have a mental issue because seeing someone will take multiple months, if not years. I hope you don't need glasses. Or a dentist.

I'm in Quebec and I don't even know about the other provinces, but I have no family doctor since the pandemic. The previous one retired. At one point I was prescribed Concerta, after finally seeing neuropsychologists, but when my doctor retired, I wasn't able to get a new doctor for a follow-up or renewal, so I just stopped. I still have no doctor since the pandemic. The system is so run down that we have to fight for appointments at the walk in clinics. You call at the clinic at 8 AM when they open but they're already full for the day. In fact, they're full at 00:01 AM. When I need to see a doctor, I have to call 811 and get a rendezvous at the walk in clinic.

I understand that it could be much worse, and I appreciate what we have, but it's also very difficult to praise in any possible way.

I don't use healthcare at all because of all the stories I've heard about people getting slapped with medical bills for 1000s of dollars that their insurance decided wasn't covered after all. Not dealing with that shit unless I think I'm dying. Realistically though I'll probably try to sleep whatever ends up killing me off and that will be that.

Wasn’t there a report that every year 25k people die waiting for treatment

I'd like one order of Norweigian Citizenship pls.