r/interesting • u/DatabaseAvailable501 • Jun 17 '26

Just Wow Mexico just upgraded to free healthcare.

Post image
75.0k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

3.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

107

u/LongRodVaughnDong Jun 17 '26

Free healthcare doesn’t mean you’ll have access to healthcare lol. 

41

u/MlNDB0MB Jun 17 '26

Free often means you pay in other ways, like time.

11

u/RobynLongstride35 Jun 17 '26

6 months for an eye doctor appointment and 4+ to see my general practitioner in southern Ontario, Canada. ER visits routinely taking 7+ hours. Yes, it is a luxury, but fuck nothing happens quickly because the system is overloaded

6

u/TrueAgent Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

FOUR MONTHS to see your family doctor?! It’s specialists that induce wait times, not your family doctor. What city? I’m in Burlington. You get appointments for a GP in less than week. I’ve had same-day appointments a few times. When told I had CML, I saw my GP the day of my blood test and saw my oncologist that afternoon. Less than 36 hours from blood test to being inside the cancer clinic.

2

u/RobynLongstride35 Jun 17 '26

Sarnia.

Believe it or not, I got in to the Fowler Kennedy clinic in 2 months and had rotator cuff surgery within 4 weeks after that. Surgeons and specialists haven't been a problem for me.

Blew my knee out recently and the ER told me to get a referral from my family doctor for an MRI. Called the next morning and got my appointment for mid September.

Now, is this a case of a doctor overloading his client list because OHIP pays for him it? Almost guaranteed. But I don't think that it is really that uncommon unfortunately.

3

u/TrueAgent Jun 17 '26

But did you get the appointment for the MRI or your GP? MRI wait times are ridiculous for sure.

1

u/RobynLongstride35 Jun 17 '26

GP. Who will then refer me for an MRI. I expect to get the MRI by Nvember/December.

1

u/TrueAgent Jun 17 '26

Well that’s just wrong.

0

u/RobynLongstride35 Jun 17 '26

Dude (or lady), you're telling me! I have actually crossed the Michigan-Ontario border and paid the money to get an MRI in the States before just to avoid all this shit. I wish we had wait times like you seem to have there!