The vast majority is inelastic.

Our choice of facilities and physicians is limited by insurers, our selection of whom is in turn limited by our employer.

I can choose a different grocery store by simply driving in one direction instead of another; I can select a different brand of pasta by moving my hand a couple feet down on the shelf. Selecting a new care team for my wife involves a solid week of full-time effort, and there's no guarantee of the level of care she'll actually receive.

The market itself undermines consumer efforts to plan care. I asked my doctor to screen a skin mark for cancer, fucking prick told me to come back next time and ask again later. Ok doc, just let me have the cancer instead.

Wait times are are just roughly 10 percent faster in the US than Canada so I'll take free and waiting a month more than going into crippling debt

I had to wait six months to see my neurologist when the last one quit. I had to wait over a month for the surgery I just got despite the fact that I haven't eaten solid food since august and dry heaved every day.

Don't pretend wait times aren't ridiculous in the U.S.

It took me almost a year to get in for a routine colonoscopy. While I was waiting, the doctors I was scheduled to see left my insurance plan. I then had to find another provider and wait months longer.

I'm pregnant and picked my husband's insurance because it covers the only hospital within an hours drive where I can give birth. After it was too late for us to change insurance options, they informed everyone who signed up that they may not cover that hospital. We may not hear if they are covering the hospital until February. If they don't cover the hospital we will need to pay all prior visits out of pocket, and it will be too late for me to find a provider within network because I'll be too far along, but I'll also need to go even further to find a hospital.

So much freedom. The wait times are so short, I'll need to start working part time just to accommodate the drives to want from my appointments. Not too worry, until I pay the deductible of 10k insurance may be willing to cover up to 10% of the necessary appointments. Private insurance costs more with insurance than out of pocket private providers in Canada.

I've used the system pretty regularly. To be fair, I live in a small city (150,000) within the golden horseshoe, so definitely better care compared to many throughout rural areas.

In the past few years I've had the birth of a child including all the various follow ups and shots, a stress test, blood work to rule out several heart issues, a halter monitor test, an ultrasound of my heart, three sets of baseline blood work, and four family doctor appointments.

The biggest fee at each was parking.

I don't disagree we have tons of room for improvement. Our contributions each year (ie personal amount of taxes we pay for healthcare in Ontario) have not been sufficient to keep up with the growing and aging population. We desperately need greater cancer screening and diagnostic services, as prevention and early detection can save billions in future chemo/rad or operations. Rural areas and family doctors need a rework, as many people are without one due to fewer and fewer docs entering that field.

That said, I would never take the US system over Canadas. The enormous stress illness would place on a family doesn't seem worth it for the meager tax savings, and the low wait times seem to only be avoided in the US system by paying out of pocket, which is not feasible for many.

Do you think that running to the ER for a heartburn or tummy aches is something that is acceptable?

We are smart enough and wealthy enough to provide quality, timely care to everyone, if only we could get rid of the greedy idiots in charge.

If not solving a problem makes money...then the problem will not be solved...ever. That's basically it in a nutshell. Capitalism needs greed to work and that is fine if kept in check. Obviously it's not kept in check though. The folks that would do that are compensated by the very folks that make money from the dysfunctional system.

having lived under uk and us systems I'm not sure the US has shorter wait times for some things.

and even if it does its because there are people that need the treatment that aren't getting it because money.

"poor people die so they are reducing queue times!" is not the big win you're selling it as here.

Most everyone I know has to wait long periods of time and gets bounced around from specialist to specialist trying to find someone who gives a damn and isn't just there to give you the easy answer and bill you for the 30 sec they spent looking at your issue. USA healthcare has all the same flaws as national healthcare, we just also have to pay for it.

Hi, American here. Wait time for me to get into a dentist are 5-6 months near me.

Is that faster than Canada?