Canadian Healthcare isn't any better. It might cost less but you also can wait 6 months to a year or more for any sort of procedure. Nothing unusual for 3 -6 month wait or more for cat scan or MRI . I know people who have waited over 2 years for joint replacement. I've heard of people waiting 6 months to see a cancer doctor.
People dying of appendicitis in Canada or coming to the US to pay cash for having theirs yanked, all kinds of horror stories from Canada's wonderful health care! I'll take the US care. If all else fails and you can't pay charity hospitals are an option. Also, any hospital that accepts funding from the government which includes almost any hospital, has to do a certain amount of free services. Ask for the form and you are good to go. Most hospitals have the signs posted as required but they are inconspicuous and posted in out of the way places like hallways people are passing through. Nicely framed in subdued colors too!
England's public health service may be even worse than Canada's. Doctors aren't crazy to work for a government dictated salary.
Our medical system sucks but I can show up at the door of any hospital I have ever seen in the US and get treated, generally with top notch care. A longer wait for nonemergency diagnostic care these days at my favorite provider but three days or less was the norm before covid backed everything up. I could often get the diagnostic work, MRI's and CT's, same day. Pressing surgery is still done very rapidly. My doctor was sending me straight to surgery one day. I had to tell him to hold on a few days. I owned several businesses that I had to organize for my absence. I had survived months before seeing the doctor, I figured a few more days wouldn't hurt.
People come from other countries and are astonished at the people that think they are poor in the US. They eat what and when they want, they wear what they want, and most have hundreds of dollars worth of cell phone in their pocket by the time they are eight or ten. All get a decent education if they want it.
We do have true poverty in the US, mostly in rural areas. Reminds me of a friend who was born to a family that lived on a big lake in South Louisiana. By most standards he was poor growing up. He talked about how wonderful it was to live on the lake full of fish and all kinds of food, woods to hunt in steps away, a kitchen garden to grow and can food year around, he never knew a hungry day in his life. He talks about how wonderful it was to grow up where he had everything, and I don't know that he isn't right!
Hu
