this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
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I accidentally sliced my finger and non stop bleeding in the ER for 5 hours straight.
This was from 2am to 7am. Not exactly peak times.
American healthcare is broken.
No no. It cant be. Everyone in America keeps telling me the wait times in Canada are so high because of socialized medicine and you only have to wait 7 seconds to see a doctor in the glorious US of A.
I am also Canadian and having used both healthcare system, I want to tell you that your Canadian conservative friends and conservative political talking points are all lying to you. It's far faster in Canada than in America.
My point of view was from a suburb in Toronto and Vancouver vs NYC and Seattle.
Oh I know. Ive used both systems too and thank god Im Canadian and live here. The insurance scheme was a nightmare and the wait times were just as long.
Am Canadian. Got stung by a wasp on the foot last Saturday. Got worried yesterday when i noticed the red area around the sting grew. Contacted my gp's office at the CLSC, got an appointment to see her this morning, got a scrip for antibiotics since she thinks it's likely an infection, picked it up this pm and starting it tonight. 0$ for the consult, antibiotics are ~60$ (that's the only place my private insurance kicks in, my out of pocket is 12$).
And this is a very standard experience in Quebec - with 1 caveat: my family's fortunate enough to have an assigned GP, there's a shortage and a pretty long (2y I think) waiting list; on the flip side there are a ton of walking/24/48h appointment clinics (also 0$) for those without.
When i say 0$, i want to be clear: it's not free, it's part of what's covered by the RAMQ, which is the provincial health insurance company, but our yearly premium for that insurance is at most 800$.
That's what happens when the health insurance is designed to hedge and amortize social costs rather than generate profits...
I'm glad you're here to tell the tale. Thanks for sharing.
It helps that in at least some countries (mine) you need to go to your PCP to even get a referral to a specialist unless you want to go to a private clinic and pay for the specialist. Then also all visits except PCP, are subject to a small fee. I suspect PCPs will stop sending you to specialists if you start raving about a new disease 5 times a month.
My hypochondriac ex certainly went to the ER about 50-60 times in the 2 years we were together though. Mostly maternity ER (she claimed she started getting braxton-hicks at about 10-12 weeks and the hospital she wanted to give birth at was 100 km from home so it meant 2x100 km drives about 2-3 times a week during starting week 20 or so). I reckon in the US, insurance would've told her to fuck off quite soon and I would've been millions in debt for her bullshit.
Im Canadian and despite the American conservative talking points, I’ve never had to wait anywhere near that long and definitely not for a critical injury. There are busy hospitals but there are also more of them so you have options many times.
We have however seen an erosion of our socialized healthcare by conservatives in power in that things keep being removed from coverage, and you have to go out of pocket on things that should be covered.
I also like to mention that it was in a very high end city in the Seattle area.
At 7am, I was considering leaving and waiting at home until a small clinic opens, but they finally saw me.
I had something similar happen to me like 5 years ago. I chopped part of my finger tip off with a slightly rusty axe while camping after having a few too many.
I went into the ER the next day, waited about the same amount of time as you to be seen to have it checked out and get a tetanus booster. I got a bills from each doctor that happened to walk by, totalling in the realm of $2,000 after insurance. Literally all each did was say, "Ouch, lucky you didn't hit the bone!"
Luckily, my fingertip grew back without nerve damage or anything. I'll probably try to stay up on my shots and get more confident on dressing myself next time, maybe try and make friends with nurses/vet techs. Shit's broken on every level.
Damn I have almost the exact same story. Except mine also comes with a fucked up workers compensation claim and it messed up my credit for years.
This is why you just cauterize it with a lit cigar. Just like my dad showed me.