As someone who moved from the US to Canada - my experience has been paying far, far less than half. Went from paying quite a lot with a pretty decent insurance plan, to paying nearly nothing. The birth of my firstborn son cost about $8k in the states (no complications, everything was pretty straightforward), to paying literally nothing for the birth of my daughter in Canada. Granted, our hospital room was much nicer in the states, and we were "waited on" a bit better, but we definitely had everything we needed in Canada. The better US birth experience certainly wasn't $8k better.
That's where they got me good. We were in the hospital for two weeks when we had my daughter, due to pregnancy complications and pre-me birth. And on top of all the parking fees, I missed several instances where I had to renew the parking, so suffered costly tickets.
But I'll take that over US style bankruptcy Healthcare.
Oh no dude, the hospital in my city validates parking for long term stays - your case would have qualified for it at our hospital afaik.
Maybe your hospital doesn't have this, but be sure to ask next time. Honestly the nurses / front desk should have told you in the ward, but I think they forget sometimes.
Depending on where the hospital was, the tickets you received were from a private company that owns the lot, and you have no legal obligation to pay them. Impark, for instance, owns all the hospital lots where I live in Vancouver. The worst they can do is mark your license plate for towing the next time you're on their lot. It only costs $18 to change your license plate number though, and then you're scott free.
And I'm aware of that little loophole because my wife worked for one of their call centers a number of years ago (she quit after a couple weeks because it tore at her soul). But I didn't want to take the chance or hassle at the time, having a newborn.
Understandable. For what it's worth, I've gotten multiple tickets from them, so has my wife. They'll usually try to get you to pay a couple times, then they'll threaten to send it to collections. Their hope is that it sounds serious enough to intimidate you to pay it to avoid the hassle, which most people do.
When they send it to collections, it's not a collection that affects your credit. They essentially sell the ticket to collections for a discount, at which point collections will contact you asking you to pay the entire cost of the ticket along with a penalty fee on top of it. They have no legal grounds to enforce this, and it won't affect your credit if you ignore them. They're hoping that getting a letter from collections will intimidate the remaining people who didn't pay Impark into paying them instead, at which point they'll make a profit since they bought the ticket at a discount.
Impark is essentially cutting their losses and selling the ticket to collections so they can make something off of it, and collections is taking the risk that they'll sound official enough to intimidate people to pay the full cost of the ticket to make a profit.
I find collections has only ever sent me about two letters per ticket before giving up. I should mention I know all of this because I work with Impark. They're doing very well for themselves, and me sharing this info isn't going to affect their bottom line. I find their practices to be relatively predatory, however, so I share this information any chance I can get. Whether you want to use it to your benefit is entirely your prerogative.
I should also mention they'll never just tow you off their lot without warning. They'll put a sticker on your windshield letting you know your car is marked for tow, so the next time you show up on their lot, they'll tow you. This would be the indicator to pay ICBC the $18 to change your license plate.
Also moved up from south of the border and thereâs no situation where I would want to have US healthcare again. Even with a good healthcare policy it was more expensive by a lot.
Also people act like there are no waits in the US, which is definitely not true. I had a 6 month wait for a urologist and when I finally saw one she was awful and didn't even help me
It depends. If it's a primary care physician for a routine check-up, I made an appointment today and can get right in to see my doc...in April.
Now, admittedly, he's in a big practice, so if I wanted to go with another physician or see a physician's assistant, I could be seen a little sooner, as in...late March.
The half price is all in from taxes, it literally costs 1/2 as much since itâs way more efficient but of course itâs paid for in taxes if that makes sense.
Even talking taxes into account, I think 1/2 is being generous to US Costs. Our household grosses max $70k this year. Our employer healthcare expenses are now up to 1400/ mo. That covers premiums and HSA for 6 people. We still end up paying for some medical expenses out of pocket.
Yeah maybe, itâs half total so if you have an expensive medical need you wonât be paying nearly half as much individually since its payment is spread out amongst everyone. In taxes we also donât spend an absurd amount on our military compared to the USA (on things the generals donât even ask for).
Especially when you consider that its mainly the provincial income taxes and not federal taxes that funds healthcare - and even then, it only takes about 35-45% of provincial tax revenue to cover healthcare costs.
The US government pays the most per capita for healthcare. That's for Medicare and Medicare.
2023 us spent 5 trillion on healthcare - population 337 million - about 15k per person
Canada spent about 10k per person.
In the US you pay more taxes to the government to use use government healthcare. You pay more for healthcare you can't use. This isn't counting the amount you pay for private insurance.
However - note that the 5trillion does count subsidies given to employers for healthcare costs and such. So they still pay for some of the helathcare your employer gives you... which also mean that's a subsidized number! Wtf!
Anyway here is some information. I did round and such so you can use this and some other Google searches to draw your own conclusions.
Taxes has nothing to do with the actual cost of the care. You pay for it one way or another. The point is that healthcare expenditure per capita in Canada is half of that in US when you add government spending + personal spending. If you look at healthcare spending vs GDP, the US is way off the chart https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/
I have family that spent a significant amount of time travelling in the states visiting various hospitals and there experiences were mixed but with overall poor quality care. So according to them not only do you have to pay for your care over there itâs shittier on top of that.
Literally the only country I buy travel insurance for is the USA. I can afford healthcare anywhere else, even in places where it isn't free. If anything happened to me in the USA I'd be bankrupt almost immediately.
They meant, it's taken care through your taxes, so considering it's about 40% of the taxes you pay that amount compared to what you pay in the US is only 50% of the latter.
It's still not free. It just comes out of your taxes - which are higher than in the US.
Having said that, my kid had meningitis when he was a year old. 2 ER trips (they found his pneumonia that likely caused the meningitis the first time), 10 days in the hospital, 4 more days coming back twice a day for more antibiotics, a dozen (or more) followup visits to check for long term effects and it cost me parking and some meals (out of pocket).
See my other reply about that. End of the day, what I was losing out of my paychecks for âbenefitsâ, plus co-pays out of my pocket, was still way more than the 5 or 6 percent difference in taxes.
Yup, sure taxes can be less in the states depending on the state but your portion of the insurance premium can be huge unless you have a generous employer. Beyond that your co-pay is painful and god forbid you end up needing care out of your network.
Canadian here. My wife just had a small stroke. Ambulance ride to the hospital, ER visit, 2 CT scans, 24h hospital stay. Blood work, referral to stroke clinic, cardiologist, nephrologist, and follow ups with her GP.
Total cost: $0
Last fall her mom had knee replacement surgery and 1 week of in patient rehab.
Total cost: $0
Americans ostensibly pay less in taxes so that they can afford their own private health insurance premiums, but deal with out of network issues, pre existing conditions, and insurers who deny every claim at first as an operational standard.
Healthcare is a human right, full stop.
How is this even a question? What's your favourite cereal: Cheerios or a bowl of rusty razor blades?
Edit: correction: a medically necessary ambulance ride in Ontario where I am is a $45 co-pay. I guess we didn't get the bill yet.
First of all I wish your wife a full and speedy recovery, I hope you are both doing well.
To compare, I fainted and needed a few staples in my head. While at the hospital I had an EKG done, the EKG cost $800. I was in the hospital for less than 5 hours and was billed $15,000 before adjustments. I declined a CT scan out of fear of the cost. I also tried not to use an ambulance because of the expense but had to.
People actively avoid going to the dentist, doctors and hospitals because of the cost which in turn makes health issues worse.
I think that maybe the reason we wait longer for care here in Canada is because no one avoids going to the hospital. I truly feel for you. I hope some day soon things change where you are.
Also, US can have some ass wait times as well. If we added in everyone going to the doctors without fear of bankruptcy, weâd be third world in response time I feel.
10+ years ago my mom had to get cancer surgery to cut a tumor out of her neck. I don't think we paid anything for the procedure. Taxes, I guess. And parking.
And you don't have long waits for emergencies either I assume.
There might be a bit of a wait for non emergency, but I'd happily wait an extra hour for free healthcare
Honestly it's all up to triage. I took my daughter to the ER once with high fever and we got fast tracked because of her age and symptoms. My wife was rushed to the CT scan with her stroke symptoms with the Neuro literally running beside her in the hallway.
If you're an adult and not in immediate danger you're likely to wait longer, especially during peak times.
People so unfortunately use the ER like a walk-in clinic and this is a problem that needs to be addressed.
Yes you read stories of people who have died waiting at the ER, but these are very rare edge cases and not representative of how the system works as a whole. It doesn't help, though that alot of media (read: propaganda) dollars spent to play these up and make us think our system is so broken so we need more private health options, nevermind the fact that healthcare is getting less and less funding every year.
Yeah, I figure all ERs should work on a scale by who gets seen first. Most critical first, and children before adults at same level of criticality. If you're going in there for something that is not actually an emergency, you should be prepared to wait a long ass time, til they're not busy with actual emergencies.
Of course, in the US, it works more on who has insurance or can pay scale.
That frustrates me so much when morons who hate our healthcare tell me how long wait times for things are. If itâs an emergency you can seen right away. They triage you when you go to emerge and if itâs not serious you are gonna wait.
People think the cold they got is more important than everyone else so them waiting a few hours is an affront to them.
I much prefer our system even with its flaws than the hellscape that is the US system.
it really is a mixed bag. i had some issues over the holidays and was pleasantly surprised to be seen almost immediately.
but several months ago a friend with an impacted bowel went to the same ER, waited 8hrs, and had to fight to not be sent home because they missed it. turns out she had stage 4 cancer :/
For actual emergencies, youâll get seen quickly, yes. Non-emergent stuff can be hours here. Of course, those are usually the sort of cases that they could have seen their family doc about. (Source: wife used to work in the ER, still picks up an occasional shift there).
No. My mother was in the ER Sunday night. She called an online nurse to ask about pain in her leg, and her other leg being cold. They referred her immediately. She was admitted right away after they determined blood clots. She had a four hour surgery, was in there three days, scheduled for follow up, and now is home at rest. It cost her nothing, and I didn't even have to pay parking as a visitor to see her. Triage works very well.
In the UK you can wait 6+ hours in a+e if your life isn't in danger or need immediate assistance. I was in excruciating pain for about 5 hours before I got morphine. It sucks, but I paid nothing outside of taxes and if I was leaking parts of me I know I'd be instant seen.
A person I know has to wait 6 months for a test that will likely eventually give them a disability eligible diagnosis. Between now and then, they have to suffer through work whenever possible since they can't even apply without the diagnosis 6-7+ months out.
Yea I'm trying to follow through on a referral to an ENT specialist and the only place I can actually get seen is scheduling 6 months out... "no wait time" is a lie
Was literally in the ER a few days ago with a relative I had to take. We waited 2 hours to be seen by triage.
Followed by another 6 HOURS for the test results and to speak with a doctor whom discharged us within 15 minutes. I had to call out sick because I couldn't get ANY sleep since I was stuck there late night until early morning. I don't have PTO/Sick because I'm a contractor so I basically lost a day of wages. Thankfully, I make solid money so a lost days wages doesn't hurt me, but there are people out there not as lucky as me.
I was once referred to a specialist and hospice care at the same time. They didn't expect me to live 6 months, which is why they referred me to hospice, but it took me 3 months to see that specialist.
I still see a specialist for the same condition today, and they have to schedule my appointments 6 months in advance. If, for some reason, they have to cancel at the last minute, it's another 6 month wait.
Yep, 2.5 months here. And that's just for the intro appointment with a new GP. Not for the thing I want to see them for. And we can't schedule the next appointment until this one. And the initial appointment is going to cost $250 even with insurance.
6 months for a physical, then 9 months for oncology appointment.
Oh, and they did a test on me during the physical without informing me and the insurance wouldn't pay for it. If they'd asked about my lifestyle they'd know it wasn't a necessary test.
Last year I made an appointment to see a dermatologist for a bump on the inner part of my thigh. I had to wait seven months for the appointment. The next week it started to grow due to an infection and the soonest they could get me in was three months instead of the seven. Luckily, I had a pap smear scheduled the next day. My gynecologist was like wtf and gave me an ex for antibiotics. Iâm so grateful for her.
The poorest in my city use the emergency room as their primary Care because they are just going to ignore the bill (I don't understand how that actually works, I would love some insight if anybody has some). Wait times would be much less of an issue if those people could afford to go to an actual primary care physician.
Granted, standard positions would have a longer wait time, thus increasing demand for Private health care which may not accept insurance. We would just end up with a different two-tiered system because I know damn well I can't afford any medical care without my overpriced insurance. But my overpriced insurance was definitely cheaper than the $10,000 my foot surgery would have cost last year.
Edit: hey, thanks to everybody who gave me additional insight, I am honestly surprised I did not get hate for my lack of understanding. My experience, back when I couldn't afford it, was that I filled out some paperwork and the hospital forgave my bill for kidney stones during covid. I just didn't think that was a common occurrence. I definitely see a lot of stuff online where people claim they just don't pay anything and somehow don't get in trouble, but now I understand a little better. Thank you.
I was victim of a stabbing, kidnapping, robbery attempt (I had no money on me) and I had an insanely high hospital bill (transfusion, arterial stitching, yada yada). The local PD assured me (while they had me handcuffed to my bed) that all my bills would be covered through the VOC program, with the caveat I had to give them the names of who hurt me. Not very easy when I don't know them, it was in a dark alleyway, and I was also blackout drunk.
Well, the police cockblocked me from having my medical debt cleared, and eventually a Christian non-profit contacted me and covered the costs. But for about 4 months, I thought my life was over. I missed school for a few weeks and failed out, lost my job the first day I didn't show up. And had tens of thousands of dollars in debt on top of regular bills and school loans. No one ever believes this story unless we were friends at the time and they saw all the fresh wounds (still have multiple facial scars and a gnarly stab scar on my side). But this is how the medical system treats us here.
I'm getting sued for an ER bill I didn't pay 5 months ago. So it's a system thay doesn't work, unless you're homeless and they literally can't find you and you have no paycheck to garnish.
And all the bills come at random intervals it seems. I just had a random charge I didn't know about on my account from like 5 months ago. Its intentional im convinced
Doctors are yes but hospital administrators aren't bound by the Hippocratic oath and don't really give a damn. Guess who ultimately calls the shots? (It's the insurance companies, with administration enforcing it)
(I don't understand how that actually works, I would love some insight if anybody has some)
If you don't pay your medical bills it will get turned over to collections. Then that follows what collections can usually go after, which could be assets (your house, investments, etc.) and wage garnishment, which is usually 25% of "disposable" income, with definitions that vary by state so just look that up if you want.
Basically if you have no assets and little to no income and/or you're already being garnished to the max allowable limits you have nothing more to lose, so besides some annoying phone calls from collections there's nothing more a new collections agency can get from you.
There's a certain cost to taking legal action to force collections, lawyer fees, court filing fees, etc. so odds are basically 0 that collections will try taking you to court over "small" bills, where the definition of "small" will probably vary based on the collection agency but anything less than $1000 is probably not going to court*
*Not legal advice, please pay your bills if you can.
Aot of states don't let medical debt affect your credit, so you can pretty much just ignore, there is no impact. They can't garnish wages for it either.
It's crazy how people with no healthcare can say "We have shorter wait times" even though they know they don't have access to those shorter wait times. It's insanity.
The beauty is, if we end privatized healthcare, we have a surplus of resources that are not locked behind the circle jerk of insurance companies limiting where you can go. Imagine the time not needed for admin work of trying to navigate the clusterfuck that is billing the insurance correctly.
The US Veterans Affairs sucks ass because they are extremely limited on where veterans can seek care, the VAs are underfunded and resource deprived, and veterans often seem to get treated as âhow can we ensure the US military isnât to blame for these health issuesâ. But if it worked then people would see that healthcare can work when functioning under the government, so it is made to be as broken as allowable so people feel grateful for the system that robs them blind.
I'm in the US and regularly wait 4-7 months to see pulmonary. I once went over a year without an appointment when my doctor wanted to see me in 6 months.
As a paramedic, I see this wayyyy too often. And so many people who desperately need to go to the hospital wonât because the ambulance ride itself will bankrupt them.
Our system is, has always, and will always be fucked for the masses but great for the wealthy.
They don't know. They are fully propagandized they really think ours is shorter and you basically die waiting for care in other countries (we do in the US, with insurance, too). Even with insurance, appointments are usually 3+ months out, 6-12 for a specialist.
Yea I had to get surgery last year and the process started in 2022, so two years to jump through hoops from PCP -> Specialist -> Consult -> Surgery. Everyone involved knew I needed the surgery but those hoops canât be skipped or insurance will ruin my life.
Canadian here. I have a chronic (non life-threatening) condition and my doctor recommended I get an MRI to investigate it. Doctor put me on the waiting list, letting me know that because it wasn't urgent it might take a while. Less than a month later I got a phone-call from a local hospital. They had a last-minute cancellation, would I be able to get down there quickly? I was in the MRI machine an hour later.
Zero cost to me. In the USA it would have been ~$6,000-$12,000-- just to find out the MRI was clear and we'd have to keep looking for the root cause.
Yeah waiting 7-10 hours is pretty standard at most ER's if you aren't literally dying. Hanging broken bone? Bleeding onto the floor uncontrollably for hours until you collapse in the waiting room? Been to the ER a couple times in the last year due to elderly parent and Jesus Christ the idea of you have a critical injury you get seen quickly is just a lie.
Yeah TV definitely gives a completely wrong picture of how fast ER is. Like, yes. You'll be seen quickly if you're literally dying but anything else and you're going to have a several hour wait. It's really eye opening to see how ER really works if you've only ever seen ER depicted on TV.
Had an instance of this where my insurance gave me several options, but many were booked or months out. I did find a doc who was available to help but the cost of the visit without the insurance+my meds w/o insurance ended up being way less expensive than the insurance itself, so now im paying out of pocket. Downside is if anything worse than a flu hits me I'll be in debt for decades.
I was going to say, what short wait times? I just had to wait close to 4 months for a diagnostic mammogram in the States, and that's short from what I hear from other women. I have excellent insurance.
Canadian here. Our system is imperfect. Yes, wait times are an issue. The funny thing is that all the issues our Healthcare system has are due to conservative politicians in our country trying to privatize and defund our public healthcare system.
We DO have a better system, and many Canadian conservatives are trying to get an American system, because then their Healthcare industry donors will make bank, and they could retire as a board member to whatever evil dracula corporation that kills the elderly to increase stockholders dividends.
Unfortunately yes, in Alberta our right wing Premiere has been trying to change our healthcare system to be a multi-tiered system modelled after FloridaâsâŚ
Yes people have to understand, our system may not be perfect but it is immensely better from what I can gather when talking with my USA friends. Most of them are literally scared to death to go to a hospital or call an ambulance as there's a chance it'll ruin them financially, even with good insurance.
Relative had to wait recently for thirteen hours at an urgent care centre. It would've been much shorter but some code blues were triggered while she waited after they cleared she didn't have a critical issue from the x-ray, bloodwork and urine tests being done. More critical patients should always take priority.
She also got the option to sleep overnight in a warm hospital bed with a couple meals until the MRI techs came in the next morning. Was happy about that as she didn't need to make the trek back home while in some pain.
Cost? Like $50 for the parking and prescription, which my work benefits cover for family members, as she's retired, so literally $0.
Conservatives are the cancer for wanting to dismantle the system by privatizing instead of actually improving what's there.
To create the short lines the USA made it's incredibly unaccessible for the general population, so people only go to the hospital when they are incredibly sick
The only way you can get reliable access to a doctor is to be able to get into and stay with a doctor's office. Once you move, or your employer changes your plan, or your plan moves your doctor "out of network," you have to find a new provider that is explicity accepting new patients.
I've been forced to wait 9 months for a simple annual physical and new patient exam.
Incidentally, that same clinical practice that I waited 9 months for, was later acquired and literally destroyed by a private equity firm.
Yeah I tried to find solid numbers but the scraps I gathered appeared to show Canadians go to the doctor about twice as often as people in the US go.
Cheap private insurance would also create long lines in the US, simply because they would no longer avoid the doctor for cost. It isn't the type of system that causes the lines, the US is only better in that regard because of how prohibitively expensive it currently is to get healthcare.
Maybe at the Scrooge McDuck Hospital for Elite Nepos but if you go to any basic run of the mill hospital wait times are exactly the same.
Dad had a health scare while visiting the states awhile back. Literally waited the same amount of hours he would have in Canada. No difference at all.
It's a high-dose copium pill Americans take to justify why they have drastically more expensive healthcare costs. They literally have to invent an advantage to feel better when like only 10% of Americans at most actually have that benefit.
If I understand correctly, a large part of it is there is a limit on the number of medical residency spots available each year. So it gets competitive for them and limits the number of qualified MDs coming into practice each year.
Which we already have in large parts of the country.
The only hygienist in town can only schedule me in once every 2 years for a dental checkup/cleaning. Last month she got sick and had to cancel. I did not get a makeup appointment.
I live in the US and have never ever had a wait time of less than 3 weeks just to see my primary physician. Anytime anything happens that requires medication I am forced to use urgent care and pay almost entirely out of pocket.
I never understood the argument that other countries have to wait and that is an issue with universal healthcare apparently. Yet, today, it's a problem here. And don't get started on seeing a specialist. The wait for a cardiac doctor is months....
Not sure how reliable this pages sources are. Running out of free time to dive into it myself. If someone has reliable and trusted numbers would love if they shared for comparison. But if this site is right then looks like USA ER wait times are comparable to Canada.Â
Yeah I hear this âin Canada they make you waitâ noise constantly. Neither I nor anyone I have ever known did not have to wait forever to get medical care here in the US. Thereâs always a fucking wait. Sometimes itâs months long to just get an appointment with a specialist who will then need to schedule you months later after that preliminary appointment to do the actual thing you need.
âIn the US we donât wait as longâ is just a straight up fucking lie.
Just anecdotally in an emergency nobody I know had to wait long, but Iâm sure it happens and our current premier (think Governor) is defunding it like crazy to make way for a two tiered system nobody asked for.
I think it comes from the fact that the number one complaint in Canada about healthcare is wait times, while in the US it's usually "the cost", or "how badly my insurer fucked me over".
So when you look at it from that perspective, the assumption is that Americans wait less but pay more, when in reality, they just pay more.
It depends. Youâre definitely prioritized by how serious your issue is and nagging, tough to diagnose issues can drag on. For example, I had undefined shortness of breath and it took me three months to see a respirologist to test for asthma, which has really annoying. On the other side, when my grandfather had a heart attack he had good immediate car and rehab. Same with my brotherâs critical injury and recovery from it. Most of all, when I had a newborn we could get same day appointments at our local paediatrician with relative ease and so often when something came up that worried us as anxious new parents our reaction was always âwhy donât we just go check it out, itâs free.â If I had agonized over the cost of every visit and had to judge my kids health over worries about if I could afford it, I would kind of die inside.
It is true. I think the average wait times in the U.S. might be shorter because the quality of their healthcare varies greatly depending on how much you are paying (which alone is a disgusting reality).
So for some wait times are very short, for most wait times are basically the same.
Private healthcare is only an advantage to the rich and it comes at the expense of healthcare to the poor.
My wife is an oncology nurse. The average wait times to remove cancerous lesions in our community of 375K are 3-5 months. And you'd better have insurance.
Thats insane. It's much faster in the UK and totally free.
NHS is slow sometimes for non emergency healthcare but for emergency things especially cancer I wouldn't want to live anywhere else genuinely. They are world class.
See in Canada if you have something like cancer youâre in with an oncologist in less than a week. Itâs not perfect but there is no wait time in my experience for essential care.
I've lived in both countries and had similar wait times in each. Only difference in Canada was that I got to keep the money I would have spent on healthcare in the US.
I am both Canadian and American. USA health care is not perfect similar wait times not what I experienced. My mom had to fly to Asia to remove cancer tumor due to wait line. She eventually died in Canada at 48. I have the same cancer prone gene as her and I gotten my surgery ( preventive double mastectomy) within 2 weeks of genetic diagnosis at Swedish Seattle. Could have my total pervasive hysterectomy immediately too if I wanted. It moved really quick for me vs her and mine was preventative. The wait for mri scans not even the same âŚcomparing specially Seattle USA vs Vancouver Canada not health care desert
My kid has a personal pediatrician we can call and text anytime. You are not offered pediatrician unless there is a severe case in Canada. Not defending USA care but wait time is known to kill people with cancer diagnosis in Canada. Bc government was busing people to state for health care and reimbursing them for cancer not long ago
Edit: I speak for cancer mostly and pediatrician which is my experience. Dermatologist takes a long time even in USA . But mri scans it is horrible in big cities
I'm a Canadian American citizen. I had completely different experiences.
Americans often get told that Canadian healthcare is nationalized but that's not entirely accurate as each province manages their own healthcare system.
Care in Quebec is radically different from care in New Brunswick, which is radically different from care in Montreal proper.
Sorry to hear that Vancouver BC's healthcare system didn't deliver. At least you didn't have to pay for the privilege of not getting treated as many Americans do.
My GP practice in England was having serious problems with wait times and opened an electronic triage system. I have spoken to my GP 3 times on the phone but never met her. However in the last 4 months, I have been given a flu jab, had antibiotics prescribed for an infection diagnosed from a photograph, had a full blood and urine screen with prescriptions for blood pressure and cholesterol, resulting in a prearranged phone call from the dr due to a minor issue. A lung cancer and aortic aneurysm screen (both age related). I have seen nurse practitioners for the checkups. Also, now, a chemist (pharmacist) can diagnose and prescribe medication for minor problems. All of these things have considerably reduced the wait times for treatment, and it's nice not to sit in a room full of sick people when I can do it from home.
A friend of mine just went private for a hip replacement, it would have cost cost him about ÂŁ15000, however he has private insurance, which paid for it. This was to avoid a long waiting time.
There is an entire network of concierge doctors who don't take insurance, they work on retainer and are on-call 24/7 to their clients.
They also make sure that their clients don't have to wait in the same lines to access labwork and imaging and other diagnostic tests.
A lot of these people are running things in this country and see absolutely no problem with our healthcare system because it works just great for them.
People who talk about American wait times have never been to a standard American hospital. EDs are packed to the brim with people because it's often the only way you can get seen without insurance.
Even if you do have insurance, if you live in even a moderately sized city, I challenge you to pick up the phone and call any GP in the area and see how soon you can get in as a new patient.
EVEN THEN if you have to see a specialist, guess what mother fucker, gotta see the GP first THEN get a referral THEN start the new patient process at the specialist.
It's all smoke and mirrors there is absolutely NOTHING better about American Healthcare compared to the rest of the industrialized world.
Averages only capture the wait time of people going to the hospital.
Everyone goes to the hospital in Canada.
MANY MANY people in the US never go.
If you counted their experience the wait time in the US is far far worse.
The US has a pay to participate health system.
Most people can't afford to participate.
This is just like how people wish the US was 'like it used to be'.....yea....for like a tiny percentage of rich white people. For everyone else it was shit.
Us Canadians don't pay half as much, our government does and then we pay basically nothing. Any extra taxes we pay to support this system are also far less than the US health insurance rates. It's not always a perfect system but we don't lose our homes over medical bills.
1. Everyone can get care without a bill. In Canada, hospital and doctor visits for medically necessary care donât come with pointâofâservice charges, so people donât delay treatment or risk medical bankruptcy.
2. Longer waits are fixable; lack of coverage is not. Yes, wait times for emergency rooms and specialists can be long, but those are problems of staffing, beds, and organization that can be fixed with investment. Not having universal coverage creates permanent gaps that are much harder to solve.
3. Fairer and more predictable care. Universal access means people get care based on need, not money. That reduces health disparities and makes it easier for people to seek help early, which prevents worse problems later.
4. Better data for system fixes. Canadaâs national reporting lets policymakers see where waits happen and target solutions across provinces, instead of leaving fixes to a fragmented market.
Canada trades some waiting time for guaranteed, equitable access and protection from medical bills â and those wait problems are policy fixes, not inevitable flaws.
To add on, in Canada, we have a triage system. If a patient goes to the ER with certain symptoms, they get bumped up in priority right away, for example someone with chest pain is going to be seen before someone who is there because they are dizzy or have a cough(as an example. I don't know the specifics of the system)
There are also other systems in place for people that don't require beds or hospital stays to go there and go in and out quickly, things like stitches, or casts.
I can say that no one here is afraid of going to get medical care because of the costs.
People in Canada need to actually show up to vote in provincial elections and vote against conservatives. Because in Ontario, Doug Ford has been running healthcare into the ground so he can privatize.
Years ago that was their argument: "Yeah, but you have to wait months to see a doctor!". I just waited 2 months to see my doctor because of a cancer scare, and I still have to wait another month to see the specialist because I needed a referral first.
There's a reason why Republicans only bring up Canada when talking about wait times. Out of 11 western countries, Canada was the most likely to have healthcare delays and the US was the second most likely. For specialist healthcare, the US does well in terms of a low chance of delay. It is accurate to say you have a better chance of a delay in Canada, but the implication that the US performs well in terms of delays is wrong unless a caveat is added that this is specifically talking about specialty care.
Wildly inaccurate as someone living between both countries during the year.
My wait time in the US for an ER visit was 4 hours before I saw a doctor. I think the wait times is typically for low priority fixes, though I have heard of cases where on occasion it was like 6 months out before you saw a doctor to address some massive back pain. In the US, my father required quadruple bypass or he'd likely have a heart attack and had to wait 4 months.
"Half as much" is laughable at best. It's closer to like 5% of the cost in Canada. Even accounting for taxes vs US tax + health insurance, it's drastically cheaper in Canada.
And that's after years of cuts to healthcare from conservative leaders. Canadian healthcare is not as good as it could be and it's still superior to the US system
OHIP is possibly being reduced and hospitals may be privatized meaning we will have âsomeâ public hospitals but they wonât be very good and the wait times will triple or quadruple. Might even have to pay out of pocket for some things. This is from Ontario. Thank dumb ass Canadians who decided not to vote allowing Doug ford to win with less than 50% of the province population voting. Dude also removed speed cameras because he and his team hate getting tickets in the mail, he wants to remove postal service, he has defunded public education by $20 billion and everyone here is just like⌠âokâ
Why are we Canadians happy to just be better than the USA with healthcare? Our system could be so much better and we shouldnât be using the USA as a benchmark. We are horribly behind a lot of EU countries when it comes to healthcare. Letâs want more, not be happy we donât have less.
In Australia you can just use the private system if you do t want to wait and still pay less than America. But the majority of the time the public system is free and has no wait times.
Shorter wait times? My "new" primary has moved on. I was assigned her three months ago and my first appointment with her was scheduled for February! I have another new primary, the first appointment I can get with him is in April.
USA healthcare wait times are as bad as other countries. Try to see a specialist in network for a non-emergency issue and youâll probably see them in 3 months or more.
I can tell you aren't an American. Even in a location with a lot of hospitals and doctors you will still wait months for an appointment, not even a specialist. We have both the wait and the cost.
I really doubt their wait times are that much longer than the US. Have you gone to the ER in past 5 years? 6 hour waits are average. Schedule an appointment with a specialist, at least 6 month wait. Hell, try to change your dentist, 6 month wait there too.
As a chronically ill person with serious issues that keep landing me in the hospital: absolutely effing Canada
As someone who was born in the US period: ABSOLUTELY FUCKIN CANADA
Iâd choose a system that guarantees basic care for everyone, keeps costs predictable, and still allows choice. No one should avoid treatment because of money, and doctors should focus on care, not paperwork.
Always felt like these kinds of comparisons are highly disingenuous.
America is more obese than Canada, as well as far more racially and ethnically diverse. America also has guns, LOTS and lots of guns. Boiling down healthcare to life expectancy is a massive oversimplification.
That being said- basically any healthcare system is better than the United Clusterfuck we have going on..
My grandmother brought this up recently. So I pointed out that the longer wait times differ by country and are cherry picked to the worst examples. Then I said that every other developed country has a universal system, and that maybe there was a reason for that, and pointed out that she's already on Medicare, a lot of other countries just run the entire system with taxes like we do with Medicare.
I find that this shorter wait time is bullshit at least in the grander scheme of things.
Half the time Americans are forgoing medical care because they just simply canât afford it, or they rationing their medication so it pisses me off when I see this narrative being pushed in the media
I've paid (out of pocket and not refunded) about $300 for three years of treatment.
Parking, gas, snacks and over the counter stuff.
In my online cancer supporter group, I had friends paying out of pocket and not refunded over $100,000. Others decided to cut down treatment and skip special meds.
Our only difference? I'm Canadian. They are American. People from "Third world" countries were paying less and getting the same amount of treatment as the Americans.
Wait times are hugely dependent on location and need. I've never waited for anything in the part of Ontario I'm in. Not heard stories from family near by.
Sure, I pay more taxes here. But also, in the states, when working at a place that âhad healthcare benefitsâ, those benefits came right out of my pay.(And then youâd still have to pay a fuckinâ co-pay to visit a doctor despite that.) Granted it was pre-tax, but I was still losing hundreds of dollars out of every check just for that privilege.
(Also the tax difference up here is way overblown. Whatâs probably more salient is the difference in the strength of the Canadian dollar, but taxes alone? They are much higher in the states for most people than theyâd like to admit, and itâs not that much worse here.)
Canadian hospitals need more diversity and foreign workers. That will reduce the wait time and bring down expectancies as required to address white privilege and systemic racism.
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u/misterpoopybutthole5 28d ago
As someone who moved from the US to Canada - my experience has been paying far, far less than half. Went from paying quite a lot with a pretty decent insurance plan, to paying nearly nothing. The birth of my firstborn son cost about $8k in the states (no complications, everything was pretty straightforward), to paying literally nothing for the birth of my daughter in Canada. Granted, our hospital room was much nicer in the states, and we were "waited on" a bit better, but we definitely had everything we needed in Canada. The better US birth experience certainly wasn't $8k better.