The grass is NOT always greener and make no mistake NONE of it is FREE! Nationalized Medicine has its own set of challenges, hours spent on hold waiting to make appointments, lack of choice in providers and facilities, and long wait times to receive services are common.

We all agree that the US medical system is broken. I have talked with cancer patients in Canada, the UK, and Australia. In every location there are challenges. Many people from Canada come to the US for medical procedures because while it is more costly, there is often no wait time. I have a friend on the list to have her Alloderm implants removed, implants that were banned by the US and Canada in 2021. She has been on the list for years. The average wait-time: 1 year to be seen by a plastic surgeon to be placed on the list, even with symptoms. Two to three more years on the list depending upon the severity of your symptoms to have the implants removed. She is still waiting.

A friend in the UK has had several cancer diagnoses both under private insurance and under the NHS. While her doctors are the same regardless of insurance source, the facilities and wait times are not. Doctors have hours they see privately insured patients and fewer hours they see those on the NHS. For basic health care for reasonably healthy people, the system seems to work. For cancer patients, when every day matters, waiting months for a surgery you can have in two weeks under private health plans is not ok.

Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, the UK, and Canada all have different approaches to the delivery and payment of healthcare. This has to be a solvable problem. Make no mistake, it is not an easy one and it will never be free.

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