Nice anecdote. I also have a few (also in the USA, with allegedly premium 1percenter insurance): > I can go straight to a specialist. Me too. But if I schedul

Nice anecdote. I also have a few (also in the USA, with allegedly premium 1percenter insurance): > I can go straight to a specialist. Me too. But if I schedule an appointment with any specialist it's going to be at least a month. And after that appointment, the followup will be in another two months. The appointment costs at least $400 and gets me about 10 minutes of face-time with the doctor but about one hour with the administrative/support staff. > When I need non urgent surgery it's scheduled with a few weeks instead of months. That is true, because that's the bread-and-butter of the McMedicine world. If however you need to do something which is not an emergency and slightly off the beaten path in terms of symptoms or which crosses medical specializations, good luck coordinating medical care. You will be scheduled in a couple of months to minimize liability, so that perhaps it goes away or you go away.