My brother (Australian) spent some time in Canada and was able to see a doctor straight away and really cheaply a bunch of times, and visited the hospital once with a nasty foot injury with no dramas. It seemed like a pretty good system.

I remember contrasting that with my US experience at the same time, where a 10 minute consult with a doctor cost 600USD. I had a really obvious ear infection, just needed some antibiotics, but he must have seen me as a cash-cow and ordered a ton of unrelated blood tests that were pointless since I was flying out the next day. I walked away feeling like I'd been scammed.

(In Australia a doctor's visit is under 30USD, blood tests don't cost much either)

This entire thread makes me think you guys over there in the north-American continent are living in literal hell. And I'm not even saying this from a "first world" European country. I'm saying this from a so-called "shithole" country at the bottom of Africa, South Africa to be precise. The last thing I had to worry about wrt my medical was whether or not I was using all my "benefits". The deductible (or excess) is basically peanuts (or zero) for most things, and I have so far in my entire adult life never had to pay a deductible. I get a doctor's appointment at a moments notice, ER rooms are practically empty and really just 24-hour doctor's rooms with access to hospital equipment, pay for nothing out of my pocket, they cover all my meds, they cover my entire hospital stay, I wait for at-most weeks for certain specialists (that are all leaving the country btw, due to government), and never worry that medical bills will bankrupt me.

Of course, as with most things, government in South Africa is basically jealous of private medical insurance here and is trying to destroy it because public healthcare is a failure here. We really need to add a third item to this list: Nothing in life is certain, except for death, taxes and the government fucking up everything it touches.

In the US, 70-80% of the time they just send people with unpassed kidney stones home from the ER. With painkillers and a giant bill.

If you're from Ontario, you might want to call the health care connect people... I was on a list for roughly a year and a half, then out of the blue I got 2 referrals in 2 months (the first one never called me)... while the one I got isn't a typical family doctor, just having someone to help me with my needs is a start...

Do you really need a family doctor? I've never had one. Whenever I've had a non-emergency issue (in BC), I've just gone to a walk-in clinic where they've either helped me on the spot or referred me to a specialist. I can definitely see why having a family doctor might be a more pleasant overall experience, but as far as I understand in Canada it's practically a pipe dream.

Can't find a primary care doctor in the US either, so we're even.

Have you tried calling doctors directly?

Sometimes there are information gaps between their capacity and the provincial bureaucracy.

Does Canada just have a lack of doctors? What’s up with that?

Surprised you weren't offered MAID.