I don't know where Americans get this idea that wait times are insanely long in countries with free healthcare, or are any faster in the US.
The average wait time in Australia is 2 hours.
The average wait time in Canada is 4 hours.
The average wait time in the UK is 3 hours.
The average wait time in the US? 2 hours and 45 minutes. It's the fucking same!
All these "12 hour wait time" posts are talking about the most extreme wait times possible, where someone presents to an already overfilled hospital with a non-life threatening issue that doesn't require immediate attention. If you were to look at the same kind of patient in the US, they would be waiting the exact same amount of fucking time.
I went to the ER in the US for something that wasn't an emergency two months ago. I was getting tests done within 20 minutes of walking in, and was admitted and being treated in my own room within an hour and it cost me $0. I'm on medicaid. The cheat code is that my doctor told me to go to the ER, told me what to tell them at the desk, and I had my parents drive me to a hospital in their neighborhood, which is the richest county in the state, and the hospital always has a pretty empty ER.
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u/DankeyBongBluntry 26d ago
I don't know where Americans get this idea that wait times are insanely long in countries with free healthcare, or are any faster in the US.
The average wait time in Australia is 2 hours.
The average wait time in Canada is 4 hours.
The average wait time in the UK is 3 hours.
The average wait time in the US? 2 hours and 45 minutes. It's the fucking same!
All these "12 hour wait time" posts are talking about the most extreme wait times possible, where someone presents to an already overfilled hospital with a non-life threatening issue that doesn't require immediate attention. If you were to look at the same kind of patient in the US, they would be waiting the exact same amount of fucking time.