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Comment by drak0n1c | Hacker News Reader

If you are able to pay, American healthcare can be higher quality and more timely than Canadian care. Especially the hospitals and doctors in and around Seattle. That's why wealthy Canadians come to the US for some treatments.

The hope is that they earn enough from the Steam royalties (which should happen given the popular rumor and storytelling around the game among gamers).

Also, Canada has medical requirements and refuses immigrants whose admission "might cause excessive demand on existing social or health services provided by the government":

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/co...

https://www.canadavisa.com/immigration-medical-inadmissibili...

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Uh... as an American/Canadian dualie I can state that this simply isn't the case. The reports of timeliness are mostly tied to super rich folks that would get treatment faster in the states because they'd cut in line in front of people who need that treatment more. Up here healthcare is prioritized based on need.

The clause about barring excessive health costs isn't unreasonable, Canada, as a country, is basically an insurer and is being dickish about letting people with pre-existing conditions onto their insurance who haven't paid into it, this is a defense against the US's broken system that would encourage all sick citizens to flee to Canada. That said when I immigrated I had several long term health issues that posed no barrier to entry and the cases where this is enforced are rather rare.

Canadian healthcare is perfectly fine, but it isn't your rebound date when the US healthcare fails you. People shouldn't immigrate just to take advantage of the system.

All that said, I am hopeful you guys will get Medicare for all down there and actually cut your costs-per-patient and enable people to be more free to pursue their individual liberties.

I'm pretty sure the wealthiest go to the US because they have some of the best doctors, and they can afford to pay for it?

There are private clinics here if you have money and don't want to wait, but of course it doesn't cover very specialized things. When I wanted to see a dermatologist, I would have had to wait 1-2 months for my first appointment in the public sector. I went to a private clinic and paid 200$ (plus like 75$ each subsequent visits) and was seen in 2 days.

If you have a life-threatening condition, you're not gonna wait months. If they can't do the operation in Canada because of whatever is lacking (including equipment or personnel), they can send you to the US and the government will pay for it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Canada#Canadians...

> If you are able to pay, American healthcare can be higher quality and more timely than Canadian care. Especially the hospitals and doctors in and around Seattle. That's why wealthy Canadians come to the US for some treatments.

It's unlikely you'll find higher quality or more timely care in the US than Canada for anything that would be triaged as urgent (such as a cancer scare). The entire ethos of the Canadian healthcare system is that there should be a single tier system regardless if you're wealthy or poor--everyone gets the same quality of care. This means triaging happens based on urgency of treatment instead who has the most money.

You will certainly be able to bypass any triaging in the US for elective or non-urgent matters, for a sufficient premium (effectively a bribe).

If you're comparing quality with Seattle specifically, then compare against Toronto which has some of the best cancer treatment facilities and doctors.

You're neglecting the fact that the incentive system in the US is reversed, such that patients are more likely to receive more unnecessary surgeries and have extended hospital stays, both which is dangerous to patients [0].

Also, wealthy persons will travel to a foreign country if that country is like to have a "world-leading" specialist in a certain surgery. Sometimes this place is the US, sometimes it's Canada, sometimes it's the EU.

Furthermore, if you want private care in Canada, you can receive it. I'm not sure any of your points make sense in light of the above.

[0] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/11/overkill-atul-...

This is not particularly true. It's not just wealthy Canadians, its the wealthiest of Canadians in general. Most people, even regularly wealthy Canadians, can't afford uninsured healthcare in America. We see far more people leaving the US for medical tourism than Canadians crossing the border for healthcare here.

"The U.S. spends about twice what other high-income nations do on health care but has the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rates, a new study suggests."

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-spending/u-s-healt...

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