> I've talked to a few U.S. citizens that worked abroad who said healthcare in European countries is universally available but the demand outstrips the supply c

> I've talked to a few U.S. citizens that worked abroad who said healthcare in European countries is universally available but the demand outstrips the supply causing longer wait times to get treated than in the U.S. and that they prefer the U.S. system. These are of course people who have good jobs in the U.S. with company provided coverage. Is that true? This can be all over the place, depending on what you look at (GP appointments, specialist appointments, emergency and urgent care, elective surgeries, etc.) [1]. In general, the US outperforms some countries, but never all of them, and this is not taking into account that people without access to healthcare may suffer de facto infinite waiting times or that in many countries, people seek out their doctors far more frequently than in the US [2]. "Europe" is definitely not a homogeneous blob (just think of, say, France vs. Bulgaria) and there are great variations between even the affluent EU member states; it is pretty much impossible to generalize. What we do know is that the US has a fairly low physician density for a developed country [3], though that's not the only factor that goes into waiting times. [1] Google will show you a fairly large number of studies, but few that cover more than a handful or so of countries and/or more than a few metrics, so it's difficult to get a truly comprehensive overview. [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/236589/number-of-doctor-visits-per-capita-by-country/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/236589/number-of-doctor-... [3] http://gamapserver.who.int/gho/interactive_charts/health_workforce/PhysiciansDensity_Total/atlas.html http://gamapserver.who.int/gho/interactive_charts/health_wor...