After living in Canada for the past two years, I finally had my first experience personally seeing a doctor (not counting trips with my wife for ultrasounds). Some facts:
Type of condition:
I scheduled my appointment for a non-life threatening condition, the kind of condition for which Canadians supposedly have to wait a long time to get treatment.
How long I had to wait:
-10 minutes. My appointment was at 12:30pm and I was called in to see the doctor at 12:20pm.
Exam length:
5 minutes.
Prescription charge:
$0.60. Yes, sixty cents for a prescription that would cost probably $50 or more in the U.S. I was embarrassed to have to use my debit card for sixty cents.
I would never want to universalize my experience, but I do feel that my first encounter with Canadian health care (which was dy-no-mite) was worth sharing here. I need not cite examples of negative experiences of health care in the U.S.. We’ve heard the news reports, seen the Michael Moore films, and more importantly, we have all personally experienced being hit hard by corporate medicine’s greed.
Another health care system is possible.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In