I have taken care of a few Canadians.

First couple brought in their little boy thinking he had a urinary tract infection. They were right. Got him seen and treated in about an hour. They said, rightly or wrongly, that to get care in Canada would have taken 1-2 weeks.

Had a pilot friend in BC have a heart attack. No cardiologist anywhere near his home in Cranbrook. Shipped by plane to Lethbridge, but the cardiologist was not available, so they shipped him again north to Calgary where he either got stents or a bypass. I don't remember which. Then they sent him home after his stay to follow up with an internal medicine doc in his home town of Cranbrook. The only internist in Cranbrook was over 3 months out for appointments. He got in sooner d/t knowing someone who knew someone.

We have cardiologists in American towns smaller than Cranbrook, and Internal med docs are as common as lawyers. Doesn't matter if your healthcare is free if there is no one to go see. On the other hand, Doesn't matter how many there is to see if you can't afford to be seen.

There is a Canadian perception that people are going bankrupt left and right in American d/t medical bills, and that isn't true. Sure, some liberal hack reporter will get on TV and interview the one family in 100,000 that did so.Yet the real story is always different. I have not known any family to go bankrupt paying for medicine in America. Hospitals give away 100's of millions of dollars worth of healthcare every year. There are government funded clinics all over America,the bill based on income, usually $5-$10 bucks for the appt. I am not opposed to public run health care, but the truth is it won't be as good or cost-saving as America's system. People love to bash on "Big Pharma" as well, but they are always probably 6 of the top 10 entities giving charity to people (free medicines).

Dean, totally agree that most Canadians have a totally misrepresentative view of the USA.
You wouldn't believe the number of people from the GTA where gang violence is rampant that are scared to visit Michigan because "guns"

I thought this video was interesting , Canadian members , comments on vid , please.

Not my experience at all where I am,but healthcare is a provincial responsibility so his experience in Quebec may be different.

REFERENCE: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia--

.

For more information check out- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PragerU

He already lied before he started into it.
Being born in Montreal or even anywhere in Quebec doesn’t make you French Canadian.
Lol. So he’s not off to a great start.

Without watching the vid. Here’s my take.
A. Canada would never want the American system. So let’s throw that out the window.
B. Of course it has issues.
C. Really wait time is the only major issue.
D. Waits are based on need. If you hear stories about ppl waiting 48 hours in a emerge room it’s because they’re fine compared to everyone else there. If I walked in (as I have) holding my friends kneecap inside his skin because he kneeled on a blade. We go straight in and out inside an hour or whatever with everything done. We aren’t waiting lol.
C. Canadians aren’t rushing to the US for healthcare. Statistics don’t hold that up.
D. I have a friend on his 7th. Yes 7th liver. His mum is a nurse. His dad owns a small independent dinner. They have 4 other kids. Damien is only alive because of socialized medicine so that’s a good example I think. He also takes at least a dozen meds every morning and has for 25 years now. Including multiple other surgeries, doctors, physio, everything.

Now. Two examples of what we could consider bad. For either the US OR CANADA.
At 22 I figured out I had some heart problems. I’m 37 now. I have a PFO and a bad mitral valve. Now, I’m told by my drs (many of which either studied or practiced in the US) that in the US I’d have had the valve replacement already, and when they’re in there they’d have seal up the PFO (it’s just a hole). Which makes sense. Because there is a risk in not getting it done. But there’s also a risk in getting it done and an expense. In the US the doc isn’t under the govs thumb and would get it done now while also getting paid. In Canada the gov doesn’t pay for anything unless it’s needed aka essential, so, since it’s not at the failing stage, I get tested every two years. ECG, ekg, bloodwork, holter etc.... partly to avoid a potentially unnecessary heart surgery and partially because it’s cheaper to never have to do the surgery and to just pay for a lifetime of tests hoping that I never need it. Avoiding the risk and cost.
Which system is right? I think we’re really talking mostly about lateral differences not vertical. Not better or worse just different approaches.

That’s the best example of the two systems I’ve seen personally. Followed by this one.

Broke my leg in three places. Orthopaedic surgeon was looking at my X-ray sceptically. Made me nervous. I had three breaks on one bone, so two whole pieces were free floating. He was an American dr before he came to Canada as an orthopaedic surgeon. Same thing again. He told me back in the states, I’d be going straight to surgery and get it all back together with some metal. But instead he said it may be ok on its own, so we had to try that first before jumping to surgery (again, gov won’t pay because he’s not calling it essential) so instead, They put it in a cast, and if it healed wrong they’d re-break it and fix it right. Two months later, not healed, another cast. Then at 4 months it’s healed. I go in for the follow up. It worked.

So. Basically. Those are the system differences in practical terms the way I’ve experienced it and has been described to me by my doctors. . Which ones right? I don’t know. I know that Damien’s alive where he wouldn’t be. I know that I avoided and expensive and painful leg surgery that may or may not have worked. And I’ve avoid open heart surgery for 15 years while being monitored. In the US Damien’s dead unless a celeb takes up a go fund me. And I have titanium screws and a pig valve.

So maybe I got lucky. Or maybe we should be more hands off with medicine and Canada is accidentally achieving that through cheapness. Haha.

When you hear about the Uber rich going to the US or elsewhere for medicine it’s about one of two things.
1- the gov deemed something unnecessary so they wouldn’t pay (lime my heart) so they find other means because they aren’t comfortable with the “let’s just monitor this and not operate approach”
2- waits for lesser problems. If you’re too far down the triage list then ya you can be stuck. And the rich pay to jump that line. But the truth is, if it were dire, they wouldn’t have to leave. They just hate lines like all of us and can afford to get around them. And all their yelling about how awful it is in Canada is just a rich person not used to being treated on equal terms. They think they’re special and want that treatment so they feel personally insulted by Canada not holding them on a pedestal so they moan publicly about how awful things are.

In a free system how do you control the expenditure? Wait times, staff shortages, etc. They cannot print enough money to fund a free system with no restrictions.

The quality of care is top notch. My exes mum had a heartack. She was in the hospital for weeks follow up exams and so forth and she had a private room. The “non” necessities you have pay for to keep gov costs down.

It’s a fact.

So an example of this would tv and internet. You pay separately for that out of pocket. It’s not essential so it’s not paid for.

We also don’t have socialized dental care which we should.

Actually, Canadas worst issues are First Nations and mental health. And neither is on a road to get better.

Ouananiche has explained it very well.

Do we have Brit’s on here? I wonder what theirs is like compared to Canada.

I know nothing about Canadian health care. I do know what happened to the cost of health care coverage in the USA when the government got involved. I sure don't trust them to get more involved.