My dermatologist books nine months in advance. My wife’s neurologist books six months out. Long waits are absolutely a thing in the US. A surgery she needed took 18 months to go through.

In the US around 26 million people have no form of health insurance. These same people are unlikely to be able to afford a 'simple' gall bladder ablation out of pocket. Which implies an effectively infinite wait time. What's crazy is that some people think this is normal.

But it was truly not urgent, I would have been ok with waiting 6 months!

And the scans are not scheduled months in advance. We complained that we were only informed of the date and time of the next scan a few days before it... The explanation was that they have a must not be done before and a must be done after dates but the actual scheduling is done just in time so urgent case are prioritized before routine care.