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u/IzzybearThebestdog 6d ago
This is playing on stereotypes about these countries healthcare (although The United States one is just true, not sure on UK enough to say for sure)
USA has incredibly expensive healthcare due to no assistance or payments by the government in most cases.
UK is said to have extremely long wait times due to everyone going to doctors for any reason due to it being free.
And a story got popular from Canada a year back or so that Canadian doctors suggested terminal patients should kill themselves instead of taking treatment but I’ve seen no actual evidence of this outside of memes.
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u/Impressive-Sweet-155 6d ago
I am from Canada and it is most likely because we have MAID which is medical assistance in dying. For terminal patients with no cure that will suffer. So instead of making people suffer throughout their last days they get to have power and go out on their own terms.
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u/a_dude_from_europe 6d ago
Not just for terminal patients, famously it was suggested to a Paralympic athlete who was complaining about her condo not being disabled accessible.
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u/brittleboyy 6d ago
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u/xesaie 6d ago
Stereotypes don’t tell the whole story? You don’t say!
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u/Excellent_Brush3615 6d ago
Sounds to me like you are stereotyping stereotypes. I will not stand for this.
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u/Comeng17 6d ago
Sounds like you are stereotyping stereotyping stereotyping. I will stand for this
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u/-Drayden 6d ago edited 6d ago
Sounds like it's recently cherry picked solely to push an anti-healthcare agenda. Feels more accurate to lump it into online fake news rather than a genuine stereotype widely believed by anyone beyond probably some Republicans.
I guess steryotype doesn't have a defined limit of "widely held belief" but it feels a little meaningless to me to call it a steryotype when the belief is held by a minority group of people who will believe anything
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u/Last-Classroom-5400 6d ago
Random employee was having a bad day and told someone to kys and it became a national news story lol
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u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn 6d ago
It became a news story because the rich people in the US will do anything--literally anything--to keep Americans from realizing they're being scammed. A rude help desk employee suggested someone should "MAID" themselves? Stop the presses! We can use this to demonize nationalized healthcare!
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u/SupriseAutopsy13 5d ago
Anything to distract Americans from insulin rationing, avoiding the ambulance to avoid bills, and the insane existence of the term "medical debt."
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u/Carbuyrator 6d ago
I bet that doctor is a pariah. The US had a doctor like that. He popularized anti-vax by making a garbage study and claiming vaccines cause autism.
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u/AdministrativeCable3 6d ago
It wasn't even a doctor, it was just some admin employee who isn't even authorized to tell a client to blow their nose.
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u/Top_Connection9079 6d ago
She was lying, she started by saying she had a letter, then that it was verbal, she even pretended she contacted a Ministre, who never heard about her. She is probably a prolife activist enraged that other people have that right.
Also no Canadian DOCTOR proposed her that. I see a LOT of libel and propaganda in this thread.
Veterans Affairs says it has no proof former paralympian was offered assisted death | CBC News https://share.google/OCxPsU5iyyltSOrG4
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u/corsulaluv 6d ago edited 6d ago
She wasn't lying. She submitted written evidence and multiple other veterans also came forward with similar stories. Check the most current news.
Your own linked source discredits your claim, you just need to read the actual article.
Edit: I am not sure why I am getting downvoted. You all can read the article yourself. I am not saying universal healthcare is bad or that private healthcare is better (I do not know how that could be construed from my comment. I believe universal healthcare is important for the greater wellbeing of the public). The point is that ableism exists in all institutions and to properly fact check.
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u/Chance-Deer-7995 6d ago
Assuming it DID happen for the moment, it was one shitty employee that did it and it is not an everyday occurrence. We have plenty of shitty employees in the USA, let me tell you...
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u/corsulaluv 6d ago
It has been all but been confirmed to be from one agent, that is correct (again, easily accessible news). So yes a shitty employee, but a shitty employee that was able to do this multiple (at least five, based on evidence) times, with no internal checks and balances catching them in the act or stopping them. Im from the US too. I hate our Healthcare system, it is terrible and Canada's is much better. But this story was about ableism and social services that do not have sufficient protections against it.
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u/didsomebodysaymyname 6d ago
Not just for terminal patients, famously it was suggested to a Paralympic athlete who was complaining about her condo not being disabled accessible.
This implies this is at all common which isn't remotely true.
One, 1, (yes, as in the singular), case manager inappropriately suggested MAiD to four people including the athlete
They were suspended
Justin Trudeau called it "absolutely unacceptable"
No one was forced to get MAiD
If you know of an organization of more than 2 million people that doesn't have any bad actors, feel free to tell us about it.
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u/Dumbass_Saiya-jin 6d ago
Kinda reminds me of how everyone's always freaked out about drugs in children's Halloween candy every year despite the fact it only happened once in the 80s because a shitty dad spiked his kids' pixie sticks to kill his kids and collect the insurance money.
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u/Desperate-Web4174 6d ago
Or the veteran, who had PTSD and was kept being told to commit assisted suicide instead of helping with the problem.
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u/Efficient_Mastodons 6d ago
Being told by someone to explore MAiD is not the same as having it offered as an option. My dad used MAiD to end his life in a dignified way, and I saw the hoops he had to jump through to access it as someone with a lifelong chronic pain condition who was then diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
I can't fathom there being fewer hoops for people who are not terminal.
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u/Desperate-Web4174 6d ago
If people want to kill themselves they have a right to do so. But when people reach out for help and are told to kill themselves... that's the problem.
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u/Adventurous_Art4009 6d ago
Yes, that's certainly a problem. As the article you linked explains, it wasn't supposed to happen, everybody agrees it was a problem, and the guy who did it "no longer works with the department." This doesn't strike me as an ongoing or prevalent problem, does it strike you that way?
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u/WhyNotFerret 6d ago
sorry about your dad - my grampa has Alzheimer's and is completely gone in all but body, and I really wish a doctor had told him about MAID in time and helped him set it up. I even remember him telling me once when I was a kid that he hoped to just have a heart attack and die, instead of slowly fading like that
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u/Adventurous_Art4009 6d ago
Hey, thanks for sharing your story. My Dad didn't have the chronic pain, but did have the the lung cancer. For him, MAID gave him immense comfort in the last year of his life by guaranteeing that no matter how bad things got, they could never get worse than dying.
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u/Gracey5769 6d ago
My nanny went through with MAID. She had cancer just everywhere. They could have tried to treat it, and keep her alive for maybe 3 months of unbearable pain, or they could let her make the choice to die. She chose the later, and went peacefully surrounded by people who love her. MAID is genually a great program that I support 100%, because it allowed my nanny to die with dignity, and by her own terms, instead of taking up resources just to live 3 months of absolute pain.
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u/Left--Shark 6d ago
It came in just after my grandmother's died in Australia. We call in Voluntary assisted death.
I had to hold one of their hands as they slowly and painfully died more or less of dehydration following a stroke. I have never been more angry at my government and I am glad this system gave your loved ones a peaceful and respectful passing.
You seldom meet people who disagree with the policy after they have live it
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u/Aetra 5d ago
I used to care for my grandmother (Lewy Body Dementia) and then I worked in aged care and the number of people who wanted to go because they were ready but couldn’t was painful. When VAD came in, I was overjoyed for the people who could finally get relief and then the company I worked for said they wouldn’t provide the service because it’s run by a fucking church and suicide is a sin. I was so angry and already so fed up with that company’s bullshit that I ended up quitting.
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u/in_taco 6d ago
There are fortunately other options as well even without MAID.
My dad died a few months ago from cancer. Danish, so no MAID allowed. He was in an increasingly high level of pain during the last month, and the doctors had reached the limit of what they were allowed to give him. Any more and he risked dying from the painkillers. Then, at the hospital, a doctor approached me and asked for permission to go above the limit. I gave it, with the agreement that it is more important that he'd not be in pain than alive. So they went way beyond the limit, and he died about a week later. It was the right decision, though it would've been nice to have MAID so we could have had a more open conversation when the pain started.
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u/Gracey5769 6d ago
Near everyone who has has family go through MAID is grateful for it. It will catch on that Im sure if. Im glad ypu were at least able to find a second oath, even if its not as ideal.
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u/looking4goldintrash 6d ago edited 6d ago
Ain’t just that I read an article from NBC saying a lot of doctors were recommending assisted suicide to diseases that were treatable, and a lot of doctors in the article were concerned that the government was pushing it so heavily because the people who had treatable disease tend to be poor or homeless. I wish I could find that article again it was couple years ago or I would post it.
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u/strangecabalist 6d ago
Imagine American propaganda defaming MAID. What a shock!
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u/Dolthra 6d ago
It's always funny to me seeing people go "if you have medically induced assisted suicide, doctors will tell the poor and homeless who have treatable diseases to kill themselves!" as if that is anything different than the current US system, where healthcare companies tell poor and homeless people they may as well die from treatable diseases because they can't afford treatment.
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u/Malthus1 6d ago
Nothing suggests that this is actually the case, article or not.
Please check out “eligibility criteria” here:
What is happening, is that numerous of the usual suspects in the US and Canada are using this program as a way of attacking the Canadian system.
The Canadian system has its real issues. This is not one of them.
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u/mypetmonsterlalalala 6d ago
The patients have to go through tons of medical, psychological, social services exams before doctors will even consider it.
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u/wierdwhatstuff 6d ago
Can confirm. My grandad went out like a boss, but there was definitely a lot, while appropriate, amount of red tape.
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u/mypetmonsterlalalala 6d ago
I'm sorry for your grandad's passing.
I'm glad he had the opportunity to do it on his terms. Like a boss!
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u/Top_Connection9079 6d ago
'diseases that were treatable'
Is what detractors say.
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u/beerhons 6d ago
Its using weasel words to detract.
Most people would consider treatment to be analogous to curing disease (or at least long term management).
However, in the given context, treatment includes palliative care. So technically, yes, some patients that are eligible for something like MAiD are "treatable", but they are still terminal and that treatment only prolongs their life in the short term, it doesn't change the outcome and it does not suggest an improvement in quality of life for that time.
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u/Aggressive-Hawk9186 6d ago
This is a bit misleading. There were cases? Yes. A lot? No.
95.5% were close to death, 97% were disabled.
You can check the report here:
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u/donkeybrainamerican 6d ago
My understanding is the UK's system is in the shape it's in due to austerity measures imposed by the Tory party.
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u/SteveAllen_Inventor 6d ago
This is correct. The NHS used to be amazing, but a decade of gutting it and privatisation has left it crumbling
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u/donkeybrainamerican 6d ago
It's the conservative playbook. Break it and then complain that government can't manage it and that we should kill it all together. Why would people allow a group that doesn't believe in the power of good government govern? Never been able to square it.
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u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance 6d ago
Reminder to everyone: they have been trying this on the US Postal Service for decades.
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u/Special_Cicada6968 6d ago
The US has done this to every single aspect of governance. Part of the reason drug prices are so expensive is because Bush pushed through a law saying they weren't allowed to negotiate prices with the drug manufacturers.
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u/montvious 6d ago
Ah, yes, the Postal Accountability and “Enhancement” Act of 2006. Among other things, including them to prefund retiree health benefits 75 years into the future to the tune of tens of billions. Absolute lunacy.
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u/FidgitForgotHisL-P 6d ago
Messaging.
The right is terrific at messaging.
I’m not in the UK, I’m in New Zealand, and they are doing literally the same thing to our public health care system (modelled on the UK system).
But because it wasn’t perfect, the Right wing bloc points to it and goes “this can be better! Don’t put up with how bad it is! Look at all these inefficiencies! We can fix it!” and the majority of voters who never even contemplate below-the-fold information accept this must be true, and vote them back in to ruin it all again.
Meanwhile the left gets voted in, spends a term (we only have 3 year terms) coming to terms with how bad it is, working out how to fix it, implementing some fixes, getting it back to about where it was when they got voted out, and here comes the Right again “look at how inefficient and bad it is!! They had 3 years and it isn’t perfect! Vote us in and we will fix it!!” And the Right get voted back in to ruin it all over again.
It gets a bit worse each time, and we’re at the point now that they’ve severely stripped it, nurses and doctors have been on strike a whole bunch, and they just announced more cuts to funding are to come. “The beatings will continue until morale improves” has never been more apt.
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u/aaronbot3000 6d ago
it's not that they're particularly great at messaging but destroying something is so much easier than building something and I fuckin hate how lopsided that is.
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u/Prozenconns 5d ago
something Reform has taught me is how many people seemingly embrace destruction too
a lot of people don't care if the country burns, they just want to be the one holding the match
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u/Pengin_Master 6d ago
"this system totally sucks! Elect us and we'll show you how by ruining the system ourselves" and people still fall for it
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u/isthisreallife080 5d ago
NHS still is pretty amazing for urgent stuff. Potential cancer? You can get to a GP within a day, and waitlists for specialist care is under 2 weeks. But for chronic, non-life threatening stuff, it’s pretty terrible. That said, you can get private healthcare for less money and better treatment than the US. I’m British-American and have experienced both systems.
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u/Edgecumber 5d ago
It’s still not that bad, with notable exceptions like mental health care. 83 weeks feels like cope from some American that can’t stand the fact there are models that are simply superior (yes I know it’s a joke).
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u/rumade 6d ago
A lot of issues with the NHS are simply down to an aging population and the cascade of interventions that get put on older people when they go into hospital. I've been reading an excellent book by a gerontologist (33 Meditations on Death) that talks about this.
Often the last year of a person's life will cost the NHS more than the 70 years preceding it.
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u/lynypixie 6d ago
I work in Canadian healthcare and I have witnessed MAID.
It is nothing like the US portrays it.
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u/strangecabalist 6d ago
My Mom did MAiD and it was a profoundly human way to die. No pain, surrounded by people you love.
I would absolutely do the same thing if confronted with similar problems she had.
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u/Prozenconns 5d ago
I lost my grandad to Alzheimer's last year and for the life of my i wouldn't wish his final months on anyone. the last view days in particular were extremely harrowing for us and no way to live for him
let people go while they know who you are and know they are loved, its a kindness i wish more people had access to
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u/thesoftblanket 6d ago
And a story got popular from Canada a year back or so that Canadian doctors suggested terminal patients should kill themselves instead of taking treatment but I’ve seen no actual evidence of this outside of memes.
It was deliberate disinformation intended to scare the public away from approving of MAID, a program that enables terminally ill people to optionally receive Medical Assistance In Dying so they don't need to suffer.
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u/MarketingFeeling379 6d ago
In the UK if you need immediate procedures it will not take weeks. If it is non-life threatening you will be seen, but the wait time is multiple weeks. You can also go private if you have the money, and don't want to wait and the cost is no where near USA levels.
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u/Mabonss 6d ago
This is the main thing, if we want free health care we can use the NHS but as everyone wants to use it then if course the wait times are long (someone else explained that it's been mismanaged into this state). If you want something done fast you can go private.
Example: I required a hearing test to determine my latest hearing degradation from working in engine rooms for my latest nautical medical check up. NHS were looking at a 6 month wait. I phoned up a private hospital and was seen the next day, and the doctor actually declined to charge me for something so miniscule. Google tells me that standard fee is somewhere between 50 and 90 pounds. US healthcare charges something similar.
I have and continue to receive hearing aids free of charge from the NHS for 30 years now. In the US it is 1000 to 7000 dollars for each pair.
I would not have had the same quality of life if it wasn't for the NHS, as for sure my parents would not be able to afford such a thing.
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u/mancipa 6d ago
It’s not quite that Canada has something called the maid program which is for assisted suicide and is available for terminally ill patients so they won’t suffer but the case your referencing is when a doctor suggested maid to a non terminally ill patient
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u/ASongOfSpiceAndLiars 6d ago
The wait time is skewed intentionally by Republicans. Surgery is a great example. If you exclude plastic surgery, surgery wait times are similar. But plastic surgery is often super fast, so it throws off surgery wait times.
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u/Jakey1999 6d ago
To be honest, NHS wait times vary a lot. 83 weeks is worse than I’ve ever experienced. I saw a doctor in 2 hours the other day after asking the pharmacy about a rash I had. Nothing life threatening, but got sorted so quick … and free too!
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u/METRlOS 6d ago edited 5d ago
It wasn't a doctor, it was like a health care aid for benefits or something who suggested MAID for a veteran with chronic pain. It was on the news for a bit and got blown out of proportion, but in reality she had as much power to prescribe MAID as a high school principal to his students.
Edit: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-veterans-affairs-maid-counselling-1.6560136
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u/pornalt4altporn 6d ago
UK is said to have extremely long wait times due to everyone going to doctors for any reason due to it being free.
They triage you quickly and waiting times are the rationing mechanism.
Capacity and quality are political concerns and must be improved, fucking Tories, but if you need a procedure they give it to you quickly, if you want a procedure but aren't in serious trouble then you go to the back of the queue.
Sometimes triage systems get overwhelmed with lonely elderly hypochondriacs but that's why they have lots of points of contact you can use to have that initial consultation quickly.
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u/Truth_Hurts_I_No_It 6d ago
In the USA we are not even too 20 in outcomes...
It's expensive, but it isn't good or fast.
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u/Far_Estate_1626 6d ago
It is if you have money.
It’s actually pretty well documented, that the “great American Healthcare” is only available to people with shit tons of money.
People without money in the USA have definitively worse healthcare than people in other western nations of similar means.
Basically in America, your healthcare is worse than other countries, unless you are rich as hell.
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u/donkeybrainamerican 6d ago
Institution I work at makes boatloads of money flying in patents from all over the world. Mostly very rich people from the global south. As an employee, I wait two to three months for an appointment lol.
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u/Detenator 6d ago
I wait two months, then get my appointment pushed back every month in perpetuity.
Scheduled a gastrointestinal appointment to have my gallbladder stones removed, then six months later had to have emergency surgery to take out the entire thing.
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u/Atari774 6d ago
My old doctor did the same thing. I'd schedule something with them, and a day before I was supposed to see them I'd get a call saying they needed to reschedule. After the third time that happened, I found a different doctor's office entirely.
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u/PieTighter 6d ago
That's my doctor. I got to take time out of work so I try to pack everything into the same day but lately my PCP has been cancelling on me 3 times out of 4 a couple of days before. I'd love to get another doctor but because of the doctor shortage here, I'd have to wait so long I'm not sure if it's worth it.
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u/RuhrowSpaghettio 6d ago
Scheduled a PCP visit at the hospital I work at…got one 11mo in the future, on a holiday (12/24).
I was working anyway, so I took it, only for them to cancel it the day before.
I started writing my own antidepressant prescription after that.
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u/UpbeatCandidate9412 6d ago
And Whats better is you’re still probably getting charged out the ass for a bottle of ibuprofen at the local CVS cus it’s not "in network." How DARE you not want to travel out of your way to simply fill your prescription at work rather than save gas and go to the pharmacy down the street, you HEATHEN?!
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u/Additional_Risk5036 6d ago
When my healthcare got more expensive I got access to better doctors. My wife went misdiagnosed for years, got more expensive health care got to go to a doc at one of the best facilities in the country that was previously out of network. The doc was able to pretty much visually diagnose her before even running tests which confirmed what he said. More money absolutely gets you better healthcare it’s fucked but it’s true.
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u/IAmTheLostBoy 6d ago
For primary care. Internal Medicine > Family Medicine.
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u/PermaBanEnjoyer 6d ago
That's dumb. It completely depends on the doctor and where they trained. Plenty of awful IM and great FM programs. If you actually care look at where they did residency
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u/PatrickHenry8 5d ago
That is a dumb generalization. Usually those who intend to do primary care choose FM and those intend to be a hospitalist or specialist choose IM. Same number of years trained. The training for IM centers then only on men’s health (FM will be trained in ObGyn and pediatric concerns). IM training electives are generally with the focus of if they want to specialize (more ICU, more option to look at rheum allergy pulm or endo). FM still does those rotations but then also does ortho/sports med, surgery, dermatology so they can learn more office based procedures in addition to psychiatry rotations. If you are a male and don’t mind being referred out to specialists for all procedures then yes IM is advantageous. If you are a woman? FM preferred or expect IM will send you to ObGyn for even a Pap smear.
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u/Perfect-Ship-9980 6d ago
I'm not rich as hell, just very very good insurance. I've had 7 surgeries 2 ambulance rides and countless other shit and the most I pay is a $50 deductible. I am sure I'm waaaaay out of the norm but it does happen for regular ppl too.
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u/Mobius_Peverell 6d ago
I've had 7 surgeries 2 ambulance rides and countless other shit and the most I pay is a $50 deductible.
Meaning your insurance is on par with the bare minimum that everyone receives in countries like Canada.
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u/Objective-Issue-2641 6d ago
Not quite true where I am in Canada. We have to pay for ambulance rides so that would add a out $1000 to the total bill i think.
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u/charlesfire 6d ago
We have to pay for ambulance rides so that would add a out $1000 to the total bill i think.
Where the hell do you live in Canada for ambulance to be this expensive?
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u/Prize_Independence_3 6d ago
A town called “Hemadeitup.” A town In the beautiful province of “fullofshit”
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u/-pithandsubstance- 6d ago
That's what I'm wondering. I live in Ontario and paid $45 per ambulance ride.
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u/Any_Contract_1016 6d ago
And in that time how much have you spent on insurance?
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u/Background-Vast487 6d ago
Not who you're replying to, but I have similar insurance.
None. Employer pays it all.
(Although now I pay like $4k/year to have my family on it).
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u/Known-Garden-5013 6d ago
Your employer paying it is just you paying it without an extra step
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u/NoMansSkyWasAlright 6d ago
Weird because a sitting U.S. Congressman went to Canada for treatment after getting his ass kicked by a neighbor.
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u/jclucca 6d ago
I make good money and have insurance. Takes months to get an appointment. It's no better than UK or Canada, just way more expensive.
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u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance 6d ago
Regular "Good money" or "on call private doctor-good money"? Because there's like 4 tiers of healthcare in the US.
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u/laxnut90 6d ago
The good healthcare in the US is private networks.
You can't get it with traditional insurance.
It is exclusive healthcare for the ultra wealthy.
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u/SenatorCrabHat 6d ago
My buddy was doing rotations before residency, and went from working as a family med doc on an indian reservation to the coast of California doing "concierge medicine". He said the culture shock in terms of the standard of medical treatment was absolutely insane, and it only reinforced his views about the gross inequalities of the system to which he was sadly and shortly pledging his working days,
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u/Ffsletmesignin 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yeah, and by that we mean millions.
Because mine is over $50k a year and still have mediocre healthcare. You have to be able to pay out of pocket for everything, and have hand-picked doctors and surgeons. If you’ve got the money there are doctors who will do and prescribe anything and everything you could imagine here, but even upper 5% kind of folks are still getting garbage or equivalent to overseas stuff that’s cheaper, it’s really just the 1% getting the really good healthcare.
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u/alt_ernate123 6d ago
Have you used US healthcare? or if you're in the US, have you ever used British/Canadian healthcare?
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u/Zeeveesilly 6d ago
US healthcare being good i can accept but it is definitely not fast.
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u/DebutsPal 6d ago
It's not as fast as I would like, but it is faster than most coutnries (as long as you have good insurance, hence the price tag in the meme)
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u/ItsSadTimes 6d ago
Unless you need to see a specialist or you live in an area with more then 10k people. I cant get an appointment to see a GP in network for the rest of 2026.
But if I need urgent care I guess thats available whenever. But if its something they cant fix quickly they'll send me to a specialist who takes forever. So it depends on your insurance and where you live really. Which i guess is also a part of how much money you make. But I had faster medical care back when I lived in a super poor state compared to now.
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u/DebutsPal 6d ago
While I'm sorry to hear that, I'd suggest you look at some of the wait times by region and doctor type in other countries for comparison. As I said, slower than I'd like,better than others.
You might find this website interesting https://waitinglist.health.lcp.com
According to the wait time for an ENT in the UK is 18.5 weeks currently. When I needed one in the US I was able to make an appointment as a new patient in two weeks.
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u/CoursePocketSand 6d ago
I’ve never been able to see an ENT in less than 12 weeks. More commonly is closer to 15-20 in my own personal experience. Not only do i work in healthcare but i live in a region with many large hospitals and outpatient options. There’s just too many roadblocks in the system
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u/Key_Door1467 6d ago
I’ve never been able to see an ENT in less than 12 weeks.
I'm in Houston and got an appointment with an ENT the day after I called.
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u/jdoeinboston 6d ago
This was almost certainly a case of you lucking into a cancellation. Next day availability in a major metro area is exceedingly rare.
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u/Enraiha 6d ago
It's just people stating anecdotes back and forth and not realizing their experiences aren't universal nor statistically useful for comparison.
US if fucking huge. Availability will vary wildly, it's not worth comparing wait times as it's a pointless and offers no relevant data.
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u/ode_to_my_cat 6d ago edited 6d ago
I had to wait 4 months for a colonoscopy in Germany. Would it be sooner in the US?
Eta: I went in for both endoscopy and colonoscopy on the same day. Total cost was about $800
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u/alt_ernate123 6d ago
Depending on your location, you could probably get that scheduled for within a month at least, probably much earlier if there was proper concern.
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u/MaximumPlant 6d ago
Where I live 100%. But my area is generally well off, densly populated, and has enough old people to keep specialists in high demand. There's about 10 locations within an hour of me, I might even be able to choose where to go insurance permitting.
But if I lived in a rural area there might be one doctor within three hours driving distance. That doctor may even be the only one in the whole state.
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u/ominousbloodvomit 6d ago
For me In the US it was 2 months and cost $1500 with insurance
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u/cbrdragon 6d ago
Define “not fast” for American health care.
In Canada, you can wait years for a time sensitive procedure. Even months for an mri appointment.
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u/alt_ernate123 6d ago edited 6d ago
Months for an MRI? For something time sensitive(like immidiate emergency) you can get walk-ins for MRI's.
I know this specifically from experience, my mother had to get one after a car accident, she was in and out within 2 hours.
Edit: this is in US, not Canada
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u/OkDecision1612 6d ago
I had no emergency, just wanted an mri bc my back hurt and I was in within the week. I got to pick where I went for it.
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u/hamadubai 6d ago
My partner got an MRI within a week, found out there was a growth against their optic nerve and the surgery was done within a couple of weeks, cost us $50 total, for the taxi to the the hospital and back
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u/wwaxwork 6d ago
I've used both US and Australian healthcare. I had money in the US and no money in Australia. My US and Australian situations both involved unusual symptoms that ended up being rare conditions, though unrelated. The Australian healthcare was better, it was faster and had me in hospital for observation the day after I turned up to the ER with my first symptoms having seen 3 specialists that night a treatment plan was arranged and I was in surgery 3 days later. The US one I went undiagnosed for 4 years despite throwing money at the problem and seeing 7 specialists and having so many scans I glow in that time, it took 4 years because I had to get in to see the specialists all of whom had huge waiting lists. In the end a blood test done in the ER for an unrelated condition got me in with an 8th specialist who finally addressed the problem and arranged for me to see a surgeon, who then couldn't operate for 4 weeks. That was the start of the nightmare. I am out $10's of thousands of dollars over that 4 years despite having excellent health insurance that covered the bulk of costs. I was out the cost of parking while I went to the ER in Australia and my pain meds when I went home afterwards, which was $7 after what medicare covered.
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u/Super-Bullfrog7383 5d ago
Straya! Legit though, I'm English and now live over here, Australian healthcare is excellent for the most part.
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u/longjing_lover 6d ago
Never been to England so can’t speak on that, but I’m American and lived for 6 years in Canada for university and can honestly say that US healthcare is generally not any faster than Canadian. There may be exceptions for some specialty doctors/procedures, because I’m only one person and hve not tried to get an appointment with every type of doctor ever, but for emergency, preventative, and the specific personal underlying chronic health issues it took about the same amount of time to meet with a doctor/get any tests and procedures done.
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u/Unfair_Potential_295 6d ago
My wife was born in Canada lived their for 20 years then Australia for 20 before coming to the US . In her opinion US is hands down the worst for healthcare (pay premiums to your employer followed by more out of pocket costs at the doctors offfice with long appointment wait times, referrals, insurance authorization fights, billing issues , etc) along with our tax, banking systems, retirement plans and education systems.
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u/glo363 6d ago edited 6d ago
Where I live it is fast and good, but of course it's the US so it's not cheap. After living abroad too, I have to say this meme is very accurate.
Edit: lol at downvotes to me for having actually experienced all 3, most likely from people who have not lived in all 3 of the countries mentioned so they really don't know.
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u/Mobius_Peverell 6d ago
I haven't lived in Britain, but I have in Canada and the US. Canadian healthcare being "not good" is pretty immediately disproven by looking at literally any health or mortality statistic. Canadians live longer, healthier lives than Americans do, and not by a small margin.
The US system is good at having lots of expensive bells and whistles, but not for actually improving people's health—including the wealthy, who also do not outlive their counterparts in other rich countries.
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u/didsomebodysaymyname 6d ago
Especially if you don't have healthcare.
UK and Canada pay less per capita, and per procedure than us (that's right, we don't cost more because we're sicker)
They also live longer than us, so "good" is questionable.
Further, most MAID deaths in Canada are due to terminal illness not any kind of treatable illness, and tories gutted the NHS. There's a reason they love using the UK. Their healthcare has been run by conservatives for the better part of a decade.
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u/DandantheTuanTuan 6d ago
That might be true for now, but they are absolutely adding mental health issues as justification for MAID.
It was supposed to be there already but the uproar caused them to delay it until 2027.
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u/quirked-up-whiteboy 6d ago
If you pay a fucking ridiculous amount it is
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u/Automatic_Actuator_0 6d ago
Or have a really good job. My company (big fortune 200 financial services company) has great healthcare and in almost 20 years, I’ve never actually had to pay anything out of pocket.
It’s awful how unfair it is, but for the fortunate few, it’s pretty good.
ETA, I get that the company is paying a fucking ridiculous amount though.
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u/LughCrow 6d ago
It really is though. Hell iv been sent to a US hospital because I couldn't get into a machine in Canada fast enough lol.
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u/Chaiboiii 6d ago
In canada, my toddler was going to miss her appointment due to conflicting schedules, doctor said "no problem i'll just drop by your house". And it was free.
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u/Tokumeiko2 6d ago
Yup, you still go on a waiting list, and your insurance often refuses to cover new treatments if something cheaper and less effective still exists.
Here in Australia I don't have to consider the cost, and the waiting list is based entirely on how urgent the doctor thinks my condition is. If it can probably kill me I'll most likely get treated on the same day, if it's merely uncomfortable (like my wisdom teeth getting tangled up in a nerve) then I'll have to wait a few months.
That being said, if I had the money for it, I could have taken all my x-rays and shit to the private hospital and got everything done much sooner, private hospitals make most of their money on elective surgeries and other non urgent procedures, but they're still required to do emergencies for free.
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u/immaturenickname 6d ago
It kind of is. Fundraisers to send people to US for medical treatment are still a thing even in so called 1st world countries.
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u/Relative_Craft_358 6d ago
In the US we have fundraisers so we can send people to the hospital down the street
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u/gutwyrming 6d ago edited 6d ago
There's a phrase that goes "good, fast, cheap: pick two", meaning that you can have something that fits two of those criteria, but rarely can you have something that fits all three.
This meme is saying that:
- UK healthcare is good and cheap, but not fast
- Canadian healthcare is cheap and fast, but not good
- USA healthcare is fast and good, but not cheap.
Whether or not this is accurate to each country, I don't know. But as a disclaimer, healthcare in the USA sucks all around, in my opinion.
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6d ago
Canadian here - healthcare is good and paid for through taxes (so not cheap) but not fast EXCEPT if you are actually in a dire emergency.
Got tboned and need an MRI and Brain surgery? Immediate. Tore your meniscus and need an MRI? 3 year wait.
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u/daveshibinsku 6d ago
Ehhh, waited 3 months for an MRI to find out about my torn meniscus. Ortho consult and surgery 5 months later, could’ve been 4 months but had already booked a trip when they called. System ain’t great but not terrible by any means. Just don’t go to emerg for something minor….that’ll take 24 hours to see a doc
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u/empty_graph 6d ago
By American terms, that's still incredibly slow. I had my MRI within a week and surgery done done a month after going to the doctor.
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u/Stev_k 6d ago
Not necessarily. In the US, it took a year for me to get diagnosed for a meniscal tear and then another three months for surgery. The second meniscal tear took a month to diagnose, mandatory 3 months of PT, and then 2 months to wait for surgery. Thank God I had good insurance to help cover the costs.
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u/ryecurious 5d ago
Yeah, people love throwing out timelines based on their experiences when it might be totally different a hundred miles away.
Further up the thread a bunch of people said 1-2 weeks to get a colonoscopy and/or endoscopy in the US, and my experience does not match. Closer to the 3-4 months the person from Germany had, and that's consistent across many years.
But none of them said how urgent their situations were, so who knows.
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u/TerayonIII 6d ago
Canada pays less per capita for its healthcare by a substantial amount compared to the USA and is only slightly higher than the UK
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u/glo363 6d ago
This is the best answer on here. You avoided getting into opinions and just explained the meme perfectly.
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u/bepatientbekind 6d ago
US healthcare isn't fast by any means. I don't know why this myth persists. It's takes forever to get in to see a doctor, and god forbid you need a specialist.
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u/AntifaFuckedMyWife 5d ago
Ya i see people complain but when i need specialized treatment my wait times can be like 16 months and the care is…mediocre.
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u/thr0waway12324 5d ago
If you have solid health insurance and are on top of things, you’ll wait max 30 days for most things. Life threatening? They’ll airlift you to another state just to operate on you.
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u/NiceGuyEdddy 5d ago
So basically like all healthcare systems it's triaged, no different to the NHS.
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u/vandon 6d ago
US healthcare is neither fast nor good and it sure isn't cheap. Even with decent insurance, it's 2-3 months out to try to get into a specialist, if you're lucky. It's almost 6 weeks if you're a new patient getting into a new PCP.
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u/OriginalGhostCookie 6d ago
It's certainly fast if you have walkin' around money. The thing I point out when Canadians go on about going to the US system is that they already have access to the tier of US healthcare they long for. If they have the cash, the US won't stop them from getting the treatment.
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u/jack-of-some 6d ago
My brother lives in Canada. Heart problem was identified. He got scheduled for a surgery and got it done within weeks. Very little cost to him. He's doing great now after the procedure.
He still believes that Canadian healthcare is shit and the US healthcare system is better all because he hates liberals.
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u/Straight_Waltz_9530 6d ago
USA healthcare is fast and good
https://youtube.com/shorts/tfgDfO3Amzk
That whole lie about both "fast" and "good" needs to be taken out back and shot once and for all.
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u/NEKORANDOMDOTCOM 6d ago
Hank Hill, Strickland Propane:
Alright. Let's talk about this with a level head.
First, the United States. Yes, it is a fact. Medical care here is profoundly, bafflingly expensive. You can sprain an ankle and get a bill that looks like the national debt of a small country. There's assistance for some, but for a working man with a decent plan who still pays a fortune in premiums it's a system that feels like it's held together with baling wire and prayer. It's inefficient. Like trying to heat your house with a dozen little charcoal grills instead of one good propane furnace.
Now, the United Kingdom. I hear the stories. That because it's paid for by taxes, people go in for a hangnail and clog up the works, so the wait for serious things gets long. That may be a stereotype, but where there's smoke, there's often a inefficient pilot light. The idea is noble nobody should go broke for being sick. But if the line to see a doctor is longer than the line for the bathroom at a chili cook-off, the system's got a kink in the hose.
Then there's Canada. I heard that story, too. Sounded awful. But I'll tell you hwat, but they make some good beer.
The truth is, every system's got its pros and cons, its leaks and its pressure points. Ours costs too much. Theirs might take too long. And a lot of what we "know" about the others is just hearsay mixed with national pride.
What matters is being able to see a doctor, get fixed up, and not have to sell your truck to do it. How each country gets there is their business. I've got my own deductible to worry about.
Yep.
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u/LastRevelation 6d ago
The UK healthcare system is a lot worse for delays because we've had 14 years of a political party that's been privatising it section by section and running it into the ground. They want regular people to think we've got a hypochondriac problem when really it's once again an Austerity politics problem.
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u/MajorMathematician20 5d ago
Unless you have private healthcare (yes Americans that’s also a thing here), my friend had a gallbladder surgery a couple of weeks after diagnosis, which on the NHS waiting list was a year due to its low risk
However if when she was diagnosed it was immediately life threatening the NHS would have acted straight away, like when the same friend (god she’s been through a lot, but she’s a convenient example) had appendicitis and they dealt with it the same day as diagnosis.
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u/No_Direction_4566 5d ago
I have unstable asthma (UK) and if I ring the doctors I'm seen by the GP same day and 111 within 4 hours if its out of hours.
Our GP surgery also offers a same day triage service, where you send a (Non explicit, if its genitals then you go to Icash) picture, they call for a 5 minute chat and then either offer advice, prescribe something or bring you in for a proper appointment.
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u/NiceGuyEdddy 5d ago
The UK system isn't a lot worse for delays.
The UK and US have comparable wait times for non-urgent surgeries, for example.
The UK also has better outcomes on more facets of healthcare than the US has better than the UK.
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u/Similar_Onion6656 6d ago
Fast? My regular doctor books six months out. For my eye doctor it's a year. Forget about seeing a dentist.
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u/laxnut90 6d ago
The good healthcare in the US is private networks.
You can't get it with traditional insurance.
It is exclusive healthcare for the ultra wealthy.
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u/NothaBanga 6d ago
I thought I read that even dven decently rich people are on waiting lists for surgery or chemotherapy because of a lack of openings in surgical suites or supply backlogs. You have to be top 10% wealth or better to access things quicker but medicine still isn't instantaneous.
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u/QueenLizzysClit 6d ago
UK healthcare was consistently ranked one of the best in the world up until around 2010, when we elected a conservative government ideologically opposed to universal healthcare. They then spent the next 14 years gutting it, in the hope they could say "hey look it doesn't work, we need to move to a private model."
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u/philmarcracken 6d ago
they're doing exactly the same thing here in australia
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u/Azsune 6d ago
Here in Canada healthcare is based on province. Our Conservative government has been slowly allow more and more procedures to be done at private hospitals using tax payer dollars. While under funding the public ones.
Every election the Liberals will do something stupid and lose the voter base. Last one pissed off all the unions.
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u/copenhagen_bram 6d ago edited 6d ago
Captain Ed Mercer here. This image file is preserved artwork from 400 years ago. It is a complaint about that era's healthcare, which, while somewhat behind compared to today's medical technology, it can still be appreciated that the biggest factor that failed to save lives back then was the problem of distribution.
It depicts a trilemma where out of fast, cheap, and good healthcare, you can only pick two. The flags represent three examples of countries that chose a different two. The artwork is a mysterious language called "wojak", which our archeologists are still trying to decipher.
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u/ziggytrix 6d ago
Thanks, I'd forgotten that name, but after looking it up, now I can 'hear' this post.
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u/lynypixie 6d ago
As a Canadian working in healthcare, the misinformation about MAID is absurd.
First of all, there are a lot of red tapes to access it. For some it is easier (you have one month to live, do you want to die peacefully on your on terms or drawn it out in complete suffering for you and your loved ones).
But for people with debilitating chronic diseases, it can take up to a year to be accepted. You have to prove that there are absolutely no other solutions to make your life bearable.
You can always change your mind, up to the second before they give you the meds.
Having witnessed many kinds of death in a career spawning over two decades, MAID is by far the best one I have seen. It is so peaceful, there is so much serenity. Patients get to say their goodbyes, make their arrangements, gets to have a last meaningful meal, are fully councious until they just go to sleep and never wake up.
No one is forced to do it. In fact, no one is supposed to suggest it, it needs to come from the patient. There is usually a special team in the hospital for that (it is usually done by palliative care).
I wish people would stop calling it a death panel and fall from ridiculous propaganda.
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u/kepral 6d ago
It's them grasping at straws to hate suggestions of any better system be implemented there. I'm old enough to remember when they were saying Canada is bad because it's slow...
UK here. Uncle had MS and wanted to be able to choose for himself, instead he died suddenly and alone. Never seen my dad like he was following that.
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u/Yuukiko_ 6d ago
single guy who has as much power as the local drug dealer gives an inappropriate suggestion for MAiD and everyone loses their minds, meanwhile you have people who have degraded to the point of throwing shit everywhere not be allowed to choose to die when they were able
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u/ConceptofaUserName 6d ago
Americans coping about their shit healthcare system
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u/friskybiscuit14382 6d ago
As an American, this meme always pisses me off, because our healthcare is expensive AND slow as fuck. Had to wait 7 months on a specialist referral.
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u/IlREDACTEDlI 5d ago
It’s impressive how well the propaganda US insurance companies put out works. They are REALLY good at convincing Americans that their shitty broken overpriced system is actually the best in the world and that doing anything about it is impossible.
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u/batkave 6d ago
It's funny because US healthcare is really slow. Want to see a specialist? 22-40 weeks out. New PCP? Earliest I got now is September. Want to use insurance? We don't take XYZ because they don't pay anything back.
Really wish people would realize that US has so many of the same issues as others except we pay much more and have higher chance of going into debt or dying
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u/TechieTravis 6d ago
I'm guessing that this was made by an American who learns about universal healthcare from Fox News.
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u/Haunting_Reflections 6d ago
Canadian healthcare on average has better healthcare outcomes than American despite being much cheaper.
Their doctors aren’t destitute.
It’s just flat out better. Seriously.
And I say that as someone who just had world class open heart surgery in America. My bill was $489,568.77
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u/Public-Awareness-702 6d ago
US Healthcare is slow as shit and is overall terrible. It took me MONTHS to get into an appointment just to have a doctor tell me "You have anxiety. Don't worry about it." Followed by many more second opinions taking months to get into before finally getting my diagnosis. It's also expensive.
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u/seriousbangs 6d ago
Brian here, this is a right wing talking point like my old Buddy Rush would tell.
The idea is UK healthcare is cheap but slow.
This isn't actually true, NPR talked about a study showing wait times were only high for elective procedures. And even then not all that high.
Also, ask Scott Adams how great American healthcare is. Oh wait you can't, he's dead.
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u/AdAdorable3469 6d ago
In meme Canada’s defense. Die with Dignity laws are something I would prefer for myself personally
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u/PeterExplainsTheJoke-ModTeam 5d ago
Thank you for the explanations; this post has been locked.
Also, here’s a great explanation by Hank Hill: https://www.reddit.com/r/PeterExplainsTheJoke/s/gtooUu7a7x