>>Many places have way more significant wait times for treatment... Canadian here - yep, there are sometimes wait times, especially for specialists, especially

>>Many places have way more significant wait times for treatment... Canadian here - yep, there are sometimes wait times, especially for specialists, especially if it's something that is unpleasant but not urgently life threatening. That sucks. I'd still take that over some percentage of the population just not having access to care, or having a huge number of medical bankruptcies. As for the ER - it even says in the article you link, that's largely people who could have gone to their primary care physician. Those are the people waiting. If you go in with a stroke, you're not waiting. I've (luckily) never been to the ER for a life-threatening situation, but I have for injuries where I needed urgent care, and got excellent treatment - and yes, once I had to wait for the guy ahead of me who had a stroke. I'm ok with that.