Fellaria

I am in the US and I often hear stories of Canadians crossing the border to have the procedures done that they are so desperately waiting for in Canada.

I hate to be "that person" but you do realize this isn't actually all that true, right? Please don't base everything you know on what you hear from Fox, or "some guy who knew a guy who's mother's uncle's father's pet cat" went through because in almost every situation those are pretty much b/s stories.

For people to cross the border, it's usually to receive a specialized treatment that isn't available here, or because they feel they know more than their doctor and shouldn't have to wait like ~the peasants~.

To put it in to perspective: I got in to an accident, walked to the hospital, was in and out within 3 hours with full x-rays on my back, head, and arm -- this included waiting time for swelling to go down a bit and monitoring for concussion/etc.

My mother had surgery for a hernia/rupture within a few days of it being identified. My grandfather had a triple bypass performed within 3 weeks of his referral.

One of the only problems right now is the shortage of psychiatrists. Non-emergency referrals can take up to 3 months if you're waiting for public care. Emergency referrals bump you up and you're seen immediately. These are mostly in areas where there was a huge population growth in a short amount of time, and not enough psychs to keep up.

Well, there was a study done on this because it does raise eyebrows up here.

Here is a breakdown, and an article that discusses this in depth.

Another thing to consider, is that Ontario is one of the few (if only?) provinces that does completely 100% public healthcare. Most of the stories you hear are from people in Ontario, but even still it's not all that bad as people make it out to be. In Alberta, there is almost a "two-tiered" system at work including a lot of private diagnostic clinics and other things covered by Alberta Health or your private insurance.

I can, however, tell you the only thing that would get Canadians across the border would be for dental care and only if it were significantly cheaper than here. We have an "Americanized" system here, and dental care is ridiculously expensive if you don't have a good insurance policy. It's frustrating as fuck. My coverage will do basic stuff: 2 checkups per year, and a cleaning. Luckily, it covers 100% emergency dental, but shit has to get to "emergency" :/