Having universal health care is great in Canada. If you break your leg or get sick you don’t have to worry about going bankrupt. My chiropractor spent 1.5M on cancer therapy for her husband and he still died. There are stories of moms waiting outside the emergency room with a thermometer checking their children’s temperature because they couldn’t afford the copay. My pregnant babysitter had to go to emergency and paid $1000 for a copay.

But Canada only has 3200 ICU beds across the entire country. For a country of 35M. Canada has 2.5 hospital beds per 1,000 people, 36th out of 40 in the OECD. The US is only 31st with 2.8 hospital beds per 1000, similar to Canada.

My friends in Canada have had to wait months for things like MRIs, seeing specialists, etc. I got an MRI next day, $100 copay. Just last week one of my friends’ boyfriend had a “dark spot” on his liver show up on a CT scan, but the doctor never followed up and my friend couldn’t reach the doctor via phone. Another of my friends had to wait 2 years for autism therapy and right now has engaged in multiple protests in Toronto because Doug Ford has completely fucked up autism therapy funding.

So there are good things and bad things about it. In Canada you don’t have to pay but you are trapped by its bureaucracy that keeps its employees paid and you have no options. In the US you have options but it could be very very expensive.