Does anyone else feel like Americans often glorify Canada’s healthcare system simply because they aren’t aware that countries like Australia, the UK, or even Taiwan are doing it much better?
Canada’s system sometimes comes across as a halfway attempt at universal healthcare—underfunded, sluggish, and frustrating. Long wait times for specialists, restricted access to services, and the frequent suggestion to “just go private” if you want quicker results. It’s universal in theory, but in reality, it struggles to deliver.
Now compare that to Australia, where universal Medicare offers timely, high-quality care, and private insurance is an option rather than a necessity. Or Taiwan, where seeing a doctor takes a fraction of the time it might in Canada. Even the UK’s NHS, despite its challenges, often provides better access and efficiency.
So, is the admiration for Canada just a reaction to how poor the U.S. system is—or do Americans genuinely not know that better models exist? What do you think?
Also, if they are glorifying Canada’s health care system they are clearly just ignorant as fuck and probably displeased with their own situation. For starters, Canada’s health care system is actually multiple provincial health care systems. And many provincial systems in Canada are complete dog shit. Like, truly terrible!
Seems like more of a very ignorant vent rather than an informed compliment
The difference is people may die in both countries due to shit care, (and to be fair, may live due to good care), but only one is likely to bankrupt you regardless of the quality of care.
Which is saying something considering how bad the UK NHS has gotten!
Yip—BC’s system at the moment is horrendous. Watching a family member navigate through emergency for 13 hours, hallways crammed with patients, and walk in clinics having Soviet-style lineups—truly shit.
Because honestly, American health system is basically complete shit and they know it. Insurance company could deny and delay on you and if you’re not well off you’re basically screwed. There’s a reason why a significant number of American bankruptcies are due to medical debts.
I heard Canada’s health system, while better than Taiwan’s, still doesn’t cover drugs. In Taiwan the copay you pay include drugs. For non chronic illness frankly you’re getting a bad deal as you’d get only 3 days to a week of medication, but for chronic stuff it’s a GREAT deal.
On the upside Canada’s drug price is a fraction of the US.
One reason Americans voted Trump is because some mistakenly believes Trump will just fix the system, make it universal.
Probably because it’s close and more visible to them. America isn’t known to be particularly worldly so it’s an easy point of reference.
Wait times in Australia for non-urgent care can blow out but urgent care is always timely.
I have private health insurance in Australia though - but there are tax advantages to this so it wasn’t 100% a health based decision more 50% health 50% financial
The difference is America’s healthcare system just lets you buy a gun so you can kill yourself (or worse, someone else) because you lost everything from medical bills and insurance companies denying and delaying.
Also American healthcare isn’t free from wait times either, but you are going to pay for it either way.
As an American from Seattle, I can honestly say that I’ve never given any thoughts about Canada’s healthcare system. I’m not Canadian, so why should I give a toss?
In fact, I don’t really think much about Canada at all, except for perhaps Rogers’ Chocolates Victoria Cremes in Victoria BC. Oh, the Empress Hotel is nice to stay at and the parliament building lit up at night is super cool looking.
Americans don’t obsesses over it, but it is often a convenient point of comparison given the number of people familiar with both compared to other English speaking countries systems (as a whole, Americans don’t pay attention to other countries, abd especially not to noon English speaking countries).
I feel like it says a lot that the CEO of America’s largest Healthcare company got assassinated and the majority of the country is hailing him as a national hero.
And yeah. I can’t get a check-up or see anything but urgent care because my insurance only covers a few providers in my town and all of them have wait lists until April and May. Since I’m expected to more to Taiwan around July, I’ve decided to just wait until then to see any doctors. Same with dental stuff. I have two damaged teeth, but the only dentist my insurance covers just had an assistant check on them, who brushed me off and said that nothing was wrong. There is a big, visible hole in one of the teeth where a filling fell out. I’m having to be looked at by my aunt who is a dentist - who lives on the other side of the country, I just happen to be visiting for the holidays - so she can write me a referral to a dentist in another city, in order to have this taken care of. Even then, I’ll probably also be having temporary measures taken until I move to Taiwan.
Also, it was cheaper for me to just get eye surgery while I was in South Korea than use glasses in the long term. Insurance doesn’t cover them and they generally cost at least $600. My vision was so bad that I was walking around effectively blind for ten years because I wasn’t willing to put that sort of money into a stop-gape measure. (and I hate the feeling of glasses, but. Glasses are fragile, accidents happen. Go through three pairs in ten years and that’s $1.8k USD, which is about what I paid for the surgery.)
Those are all for relatively “minor” things. If you need an organ transplant and your insurance won’t cover it? Oh boy.
~ Medical tourism. ~ Because horrifically, going to the other side of the planet is cheaper than getting g dare in your own country.
I have a friend who have the same complaint about the US system. If you’re average, you get shit healthcare where issues don’t get looked at because of whatever. He said he had what he thinks is a tooth abscess and American doctors won’t even bother looking at it, and upon coming back to Taiwan it was fixed right away. If I’m ever going back to the US (not that it will happen) I’d probably have all medical needs taken care of here pronto. Taiwan’s aren’t perfect by any stretch, but if you’re good at giving the BLUF version of your issues, they will run the necessary tests and you will get treated, and it will be covered by NHI.
I think the US should just nationalize the entire health insurance industry, and declare healthcare to be a national security issue, because it basically is. If Americans are sick and unable to afford help, then the country is going to keep rotting. Russians might be able to put up with suffering but I’m sure Americans won’t.
Never heard of the chocolates, and the only time I ever think about healthcare in Canada is when I see something here. I hope they have healthcare in Canada, I will stake out a position there. I learned here that they have indoor plumbing in some parts of Canada, so that’s good.
Aldi in the US sells a couple terrific frozen items made by a Canadian company, Bremers. I think that’s the extent of my knowledge of Canadian food products. Wait, maple syrup at Costco.
Don’t think we really even need Canada for maple syrup since the border states could choose to collect and process maple syrup if Canada went out of biz.
As a former bureaucrat from the said region, I can confirm that I hold a record in that jurisdiction of getting kicked out of three drinking establishments and a stripclub in one night.
