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RE: Single payer health care is like jumping out of the pan and into the fire
For sure, mine can take an hour to call you back. If it is urgent you go to Emergency. The clinics are for walk-ins as far as I know, not sure if they take appointments, and for the same kind of things you might see your doctor for. We also have a free health line where you can call and talk to a nurse. When it's all paid by the provincial insurance, you choose whatever one works.
I think the biggest reason our costs have been moving higher is because the baby boomers have hit retirement age, but we are pretty unaware of costs since we never see a bill. An older population just uses the doctor more.
I appreciate the explanation and differences of how they are in Canada. Our plan is destroying people because each year premiums have risen through providers by upwards of a 180%, so if you do not qualify for a substady you are getting hammered, which is most persons who do not have insurance through work. Also, bc this is killing the companies providing insurance in the states, most have pulled anchor because they are hemmoringing money. That leaves usually one provider that can be utilized. And if you do not sign up for health care your are penalized. So you are raped in alot of places if you get insurance as a healthy person or you do not get it. just a cluster F. lol
I hope it gets sorted out. At some point, countries figure out that a healthy population is more productive. I used to travel in the U.S. often and wherever I went, I was asked about Canadian healthcare, and I can only speak for Ontario and OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) since healthcare is under each province's jurisdiction. It's not perfect but overall we like it and the provinces do actively work on solving the problems. One of the challenges we face are American medical companies, wanting to enter our market, actively undermining our system.
The biggest misconceptions are that it's entirely owned by the public, that it is free to everyone (such as visitors), and that we don't have extra health insurance. None are true. To receive the free services, I need my magic OHIP card. Doctors' office, clinics, etc, are privately owned, and extra health insurance is often a company benefit. For instance, it might pay to upgrade you to a semi-private or private hospital room vs a ward. Now a ward at my hospital is 4 beds to a room so I don't think of that as torture.