You also wait a looooong time to get treatment at an ER in the US too, unless you're actively dying, and sometimes even if you are.

the reason i brought up cost is because gambling addicts having a mental crisis are not typically sitting on piles of cash. a canadian gambling addict would be more willing to visit the ER than a us one because of the cost of the visit.

the pay vs. wait argument is a fun one, but im not super interested in hashing it out here

Maybe, maybe not. Our system is based on triage so if you are in dire need you go first.

A few years ago I thought I broke some ribs in a snowboarding accident (turns out it was just 3 cracked ribs). Got to the ER, was given some pain medication and help breathing and was waiting for treatment when someone ran over 2 elderly people in front of the hospital. Their need was greater than mine so they took priority while I spent about 6 hours waiting.

Last week I had my first heart attack. In this case I was the one that was immediately helped, stabilized, transferred to another hospital where they installed 2 stents and then back to my local hospital ICU all within 2 hours. If it weren’t for our system I would not be here today.

Most stories about hours in ER waiting rooms simply don't take the severity of the issue into account and just generalize.

Not saying that there are not issues, but I am so tired of the blanket anecdotal complaints