this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2025
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No thank you.
My wife went to the ER after hurting her foot, it was an hour wait and the only cost was $40 for a set of crutches.
I like our system.
In the US you'd have a 4 to 6 hour wait, $3000 to hospital for using the ER, $2000 for the doctor, and if there were scans and such a $$$$$ for using them! Oh also they will take months to bill you but also send it to debt collectors if you don't pay it for a month so then all of your personal data is sold and you get harassed to pay your debt!
Here's a fun one my wife got:
She picked an in network doctor for her treatment so insurance would cover it. She got a large bill anyway because the office that the doctor worked in was out of network.
It's literally impossible to get insurance coverage. You can pick the doctor or building (I've read anesthesiologists can be separate too.) But you are going to pay a bill that insurance won't cover.
Yet another thing that Canadians never have to concern ourselves with.
β¦ if youβre lucky.
Agreed. My fiancee had some pregnancy complications that resulted in numerous visits to the ER, including one that then required ambulance transfer to a bigger hospital an hour away and a 2 week stay there. One of the weeks she had to share a room and I couldn't stay overnight, but I was set up with a social worker who arranged a paid for hotel room for me a couple minutes away. Overall, I ended up paying $10 for parking at the big hospital (the social worker gave me a pass after I paid the first day), and maybe $20-30 on some really good Nanaimo bars from the lobby coffee shop. The family we shared the room with was in a similar situation, but since they lived further away they were flown in by air ambulance from their hospital, also at no cost.
Spring for the boot if it's an option. Way better than crutches.
It was a sprain just before Christmas so they gave us crutches she needed for a week, sheβs at probably 80% better now.
We can go on evening walks again, so it seems to be healing well.
Ah good to hear she's on the mend. Well just to note for any future injuries, boots are way better. I used crutches for a day before adding the boot so I could go to work and stuff. They didn't even give me the option initially and I'm not sure why. It was far more comfortable having it on and I never wanted to take it off!
That would make sense. I was wrapping her foot in a tensor bandage daily for a few weeks and the pressure really helped.
A lot of Canadians have to wait exorbitant amounts of time to see a doctor, it's not always fast and effective service.
Oh you got cancer? That specialist can see you in 6 months when you're already dead.
Don't get me wrong free healthcare is great in that it's free, but that doesn't always guarantee it's good or fast.
As always, you hear more about the failures than the successes where everything works the way it is expected to.
Nobody would think of writing a headline saying "everything worked normally today".
Well it wouldn't be news if it wasn't newsworthy :p
That's not accurate, that is repeating the line private places want you to say about provincial or national care.
I had cancer. When test came back positive, they got me in the next week for surgery, then to the center to do the paperwork and scans and predental work. They then needed another week or two to have 3d scans used to define the radition paths for the machine, and set up hospital visits and chemo. I was done treatment in 2 months.
The six month wait seems like BS unless you have a source.
It was 4 months wait for myself but I have seen similar threads for people that had to wait 6.
Let me add to your anecdotes then, no one I know has waited more than a month. My family has some serious conditions including Crohn's, Cushing's, cancer and epilepsy. It's like 5 people just in my family who haven't waited for any of it. And the most expensive part in all of it has been the Crohn's drugs coverage being shit on the provincial plans if you make too much money.
Thank you for your perspective. Yes I think people can find both extremes and everything inbetween depending on where they look, but I don't think that necessarily represents a majority of the population. I do think more can probably be done to reduce waiting times for people on either side though.
Agreed let's raise taxes and directly funnel it to healthcare. We don't need to join or be American to do that.
Don't forget Trudeau gave each province/territory billions in extra healthcare funding. Unfortunately none of the premiers would sign the agreement locking in that funding to healthcare alone ... so they can spend it any way they want.
The following is from CancerCare Manitoba ...
I would also add you have to take into account the 'health' of the healthcare system in your location, ie: how many medical professionals are available for the population, how well healthcare is funded in your province, etc.
And keep in mind that a stage 2 brain cancer radiation or surgery would likely take precident over a stage 2 ovarian cancer treatment, so there would be instances when treatment times cannot be equated with each other.
Well Medicine is triage. The guy with leg chopped off gets priority over a broken ankle. Both need care, one more urgently.
Dude Americans pay more out of pocket for healthcare than any other country and get worse results.
Like, I have no idea what state you reside in but I have had months long wait times to see docs in the USA. Your made up example can be applied to the USA just the same except we're just paying more money for the privilege.
Our system is absolutely fucked.
Yes I agree with everything you said.
Tired of this lie, tbh.
The waits are probably, on average, a little longer, sure. The "someone is waiting an absurd amount of time with an obvious visible problem and they've died while waiting" is pure privatization propaganda fueled by people going to the hospital for things like prescription refills and being shocked when they're pushed to the bottom of the list over and over again while people come in with genuine, time sensitive problems.
I have a friend like this, goes to hospital and upset wait time for pulled muscle or rib bruising is ridiculous hours. I say make a doc or clinic appointment, but no, doesn't want to wait a week for doc or half a day at walk in clinic.. 2 weeks later still complaining. Well you could have been seen already. Lol
I had to wait 4 months to see a doctor for my uLMS, and I personally know of several others now with worse conditions that also had to wait months. If you search around online you will also find many more similar occurrences. Same for ER visits taking literally all day long.
In general I don't think it is a lie, this IS happening.
How much it goes on, or how often it might be a made up occurrence, and how often that needs to happen for you to consider it a "lie", might be a separate matter.
Meanwhile, in the US, every ER and urgent care visit that wasn't at 3 AM was an all-day affair, and I've also had four-month waits to see specialists, all while paying out the nose.
Yes I think both situations are often not ideal. At least in US you have the option, if you have the money, to be able to go to an "out of network" facility that can see you much sooner and probably get a much better standard of care.
Probably doesn't outweigh the cons for everyone else though.
No, it doesn't, because even someone relatively well-off like me can't afford the absolutely astronomical bills that would be incurred by going out-of-network.
Edit: downvotes from people who have never seen a $957,000 statement from a hospital
6 months? You think 6 months to see an oncologist is rare in the US?
Are you including the number of people who don't seek any care until they end up in the ER with acute symptoms because they couldn't go in to get regular screening or preventive care?
And before you say that should be covered by the ACA you are still ignoring that hospitals are open 9-5 and the people who can't make it to the hospital are working the job they need for health insurance during those same hours, provided they have transportation and can take off more than an hour to wait for the primary care to visit them.
Not to mention, if the cancer hasn't progressed to stage 3 or 4 by that point, the health insurance won't likely be paying for the most effective treatment, they'll be paying for the treatment "they have on record for effective treatment".
And who's to say you can even get into an oncologist familiar with your cancer? Then may feel more comfortable referring you to a John Hopkins, or Mayo Clinic, or one in California. So now you have to pay for transportation and living expenses in another state while you get treatment and don't work. Some insurances might cover this. Most won't. Some companies will foot the bill. Most will laugh at you.
6 months? It's a 5 month wait to get a new primary care provider here. Fuck your 6 month complaint.
It is not 6 months. I had cancer in Canada, I waited 2 weeks while they developed all the planning and radiation paths, and other related scheduling of hospital stuff. 2 months later I was finished treatment.
I was not talking about the US at all.
Thank you for your comments.
This thread is discussing Trump's comments that joining the States would result in better health care for Canadians. Posting in a thread discussing this topic with a comment that does nothing but talk about the perceived failings of the Canadian health care system is implying that the American system is better because of the context in which the statements were made.
If you are "not talking about the US at all," then what are you talking about? That's the conversation: Canadian vs US health care.
My only point was in response to OP saying about Canada "I like our system", and I was just pointing out that not everyone does, because there can be very long waiting periods and/or the care received may not be what you wanted.
And American can also have the same long wait times.
The main difference is Canada's healthcare is paid through taxation, as it should be in every nation. Nobody should be avoiding seeing a Dr when they need to because it's too expensive.
Canada has its failings, and our systems are not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than America's.
Yes I agree with your points.
In context, that is compared to the U.S. healthcare system. I also don't mind waiting and having my taxes cover my health, instead of paying exorbitant prices in the states just for healthcare.
Would you rather reach in and pick an item from
Sack 1, which contains [rusty nails, angry scorpions, razor blades, one fun sized candy bar]
Sack 2, which contains [various candy bars, one rusty nail]
The US is sack 1 in this metaphor. People should improve the canadian system, but there's no reasonable take that they're at all similar
I wasn't trying to imply anything about the US at all, or draw any similarities.
That's hyperbolic, but in any case if I'm going to die from either country's healthcare shortfalls I'd much prefer my family not be left with mortgage sized debt at the same time.
Horseshit.
Triage works well here once it kicks in. It can take a long time to see a specialist, but if you have a good GP who is concerned about life-threatening disease, the system goes into very high speed.
Chronic disease is another issue, but that is more a problem with philosophy than implementation.
My dad is pretty wealthy and he flies to Mexico to avoid waiting. US healthcare is way too expensive even for him.
I donβt have a good sense how long specialists can take but it seems to vary.