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Comment by AlexandrB | Hacker News Reader

> Never mind that the average wait time to see a doctor in Canada is almost 20 weeks...

The way this is stated is very misleading. The average time to get surgery is 20 weeks. This varies a lot by what kind of surgery you're talking about[1]. The average waiting time to see a doctor in the ER is measured in hours, with 27% of Canadians waiting 4 hours or more[2].

As a Canadian, I'm tired of Americans shitting on Canada's health care system and spreading misinformation to score political points. It's not perfect, but I'll take it over the financial devastation wrought by the US system any day.

Edit: Also, let's not forget that US citizens regularly cross the border into Canada so they can afford basics like insulin[3].

[1] https://globalnews.ca/news/3084366/q-a-how-long-are-medical-...

[2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/medical-wait-times-up-to-3-ti...

[3] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/bernie-sanders-insuli...

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Some preeminent foreign statesmen rulers who have gotten / who are getting their surgeries done in the United States.

Daniel E. "Danny" Williams, QC a Canadian politician, businessman and lawyer who served as the ninth Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador between November 6, 2003, and December 3, 2010. [1]

Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques from 2005 to his death in 2015. [2]

Moses Veerasammy Nagamootoo is a Guyanese politician and writer who has been Prime Minister of Guyana since 2015. [3]

[1] 'Danny Millions' Williams heads south for heart surgery

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2010/02/03/danny_million...

[2] Waldorf-Astoria Bumps Guests for King Abdullah's Entourage / The Room Is Booked, Until the Hotel Says It Isn’t

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/business/14road.html

[3] Prime Minister Nagamootoo to Undergo Heart Surgery in the United States

https://www.thewestindianonline.com/prime-minister-nagamooto...

edit: typo; rephrased sentence

Yes? Nobody's denying that it's easy to get very good medical care very quickly if you have enough money! That's of course, completely irrelevant to the topic of this discussion, or, if anything, emphasizes the inequality inherent in the American system.

Just adding context that when it comes critical medical care involving specialized care, the United States almost has no equal - not even close. Whether that is Level 1 trauma facilities, oncology facilities, cutting edge research laboratories or doctors with deep expertise in such fields, the United States is second to none.

This is not an oft brought point when discussing the merits of the U.S system despite its failings and short comings.

Also:

    The Fraser Institute, a Canadian public policy think tank, 
    estimates that 52,513 Canadians received non-emergency medical
    treatment in the U.S. and other countries in 2014, a 25 
    percent jump from the roughly 41,838 who sought medical care 
    abroad the previous year.

    In citing those numbers in its 2015 report, "Leaving Canada for 
    Medical Care," the organization said difficulties in obtaining 
    timely medical care at home is, increasingly, leading Canadians
    to seek it abroad. "It is possible [they] may have left the 
    country to avoid some of the adverse medical consequences of 
    waiting for care, such as worsening of their condition, poorer
    outcomes following treatment, disability, or death," the report 
    says. "Some may leave simply to avoid delay and to make a quicker
    return to normal life."

    Canadians could expect to wait 9.8 weeks for medically necessary
    treatment after seeing a specialist in 2014, the researchers found,
    three weeks more than the time physicians considered to be 
    clinically "reasonable."[1]

[1]

Canadians Increasingly Come to U.S. For Health Care / Crossing the Border for Care

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2016-08-...

But, again, we’re not talking about how amazing the system is if you have money. We’re talking about how the system utterly fails to disseminate basic healthcare to the vast majority of people in a way that doesn’t destroy them.

There's also a scale that the United States has over all other OECD countries. It's by far the largest in population and therefore has more specialist equipment. A country like Canada with almost a tenth of the population will have less facilities.

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