As a Canadian, my experience with our health care system has not been great. I had to wait almost a decade to get a family doctor. Before I had a doctor, I ha

As a Canadian, my experience with our health care system has not been great. I had to wait almost a decade to get a family doctor. Before I had a doctor, I had to wait 10+ hours in an emergency room whenever I needed a consultation or a prescription (which you need if you want to see a specialist). Now that I have a doctor, I can usually get an appointment with them within 1-2 months, and with a specialist within 6-12 months (after seeing my doctor). It guess it works if you're patient. I once tried to get some vaccines before a trip to Asia. I called 2 public clinics and was told that I couldn't get a tetanus booster until 3 weeks later. I called a private clinic and they quoted me 3 x $200 for rabies (which was out of stock for a month) and 2 x $400 for Japanese encephalitis. I decided to get them in Bangkok. I booked an appointment online, 2 days before arrival. I think I paid $100 in total for a tetanus shot, hepatitis A/B antibodies test, hepatitis B shot, Japanese encephalitis shots (2), rabies shots (2). Of course, vision and dental are 100% out of pocket expenses. I also find many drugs to be much cheaper in the US than in Canada. Some common drugs are 5x more expensive in Canada than in the US, when I look at GoodRx. The same seems to apply to blood tests. However, I can't say I'm a fan of the US health care system. The obscenely inflated prices and the lack of price transparency puts those without insurance in a tough spot. I now wonder how COVID-19 affects those who rely on medical tourism for treatment.