I too am an Canadian living in Texas. So I will venture a few observations from personal, friends and family experiences. These are ONLY my opinions and my experiences and may not be reflective of every personal situation in Canada. Just wanted to give that warning.
There are good and bad things about the system.
For most routine issues it likely works just fine. When I was a student I ended up with nodes on my vocal cords after having larengytis for about 3 months. I saw the doctor, about month later I saw the specialist, made an appointment for surgery within about 3 weeks, then post surgery had speach therapy to learn to speak better and not stress my vocal cords. From start to finish about 3 months. Cost and paperwork ZERO. Now it was routine surgery with an ENT and I got lucky enough to pick up a cancellation.
That was several years ago and I think that doctor levels have dropped and waiting times have increased. But I am not there now, so I have no recent experiences.
It is when there are sudden symtoms and people want answer as quick as possible is when it becomes an issue. My friend's husband had a seizure, never had one before. They live in a smaller city which does not have every imaginable bells and whistle piece of medical equipment. Why, because with a Managed Health care system you optimize the expensive equipment in locations with the highest usage. Not every hospital or every city has every piece of hugely expensive equipment available. So for instance they needed an MIR. They had to travel a hour to a larger city to get an MIR done. They also had to wait. Too long, in my friend's opinion. They know someone and got the MIR in about a week. But as I said, it was too long for my friend who wanted an answer yesterday. Which of course is a response I understand. My family lives in a larger city that has a large concentation of medical facilities. There wait times and frustration for most routine matters are far less than my friends. But location is likely a major factor there.
In the US, nearly every hospital has EVERY piece of equipment, there is no waiting time for specialized tests or specialists. But in Canada it is a managed system so there is no real duplication of services, everything is working together, optimized over the system. In the US everyone is competing for business, and therefore has to match or beat the competition.
But at the same token, everything in the US is 3 - 4 times the cost of the same treatment in Canada. At least this was the cost difference when I had to have an emergency treatment when I first arrived. I did not yet have US healthcare, but my Canadian coverage was still in place. My Canadian coverage would refund my US costs, but only up to their levels of reasonable and customary. Their levels were 25% to 33% of what I actually paid in the US, so I was out of pocket 66 to 75% of what they charged me. Luckily it was not an extremely serious situation. Why the differences in price, Malpractice insurance in the US, administration & all the paperwork that goes with it (and more and more and more paperwork), and the increased costs of creating a competition with profits for a publicly traded company, as most health care systems and insurance providers are.
Now on the other hand competition is good for patients. It gives everyone everything they ever needed within minutes and at most within hours of when they need it. So that is what many like about the US system. However I think that also comes at a great increase in price.
I am sure others have horror situations, but my friends and family have not had that situation arise.
So how to create a system that has a pros of each, but at a balance of cost? That is the Trillion dollar question.
