When I was younger traveling in Canada for a hockey tournament I was injured and the wait to get treatment was a disaster. Bad enough to warrant the hospital but not bad enough to get helped quickly. We ended up driving back to buffalo early for care.

But that's just my anecdotal evidence, whenever I hear stories mine is usually the exception not the rule.

in England and had the misfortune of getting sick. The good news...was not charged a dime, and received excellent care.

There's plenty of waiting in the US.

I suppose I could have gone to another provider, but I would have to find one in my network and it wasn't an emergency.

It took 4 months to get surgery scheduled. It was really frustrating.

successful programs

Medicare for all

It cost nothing and was fine. I had no issues the 2 times I had to use it.

as did I when I lived there for a year (many years ago.)

Had a hospital visit and wasn't charged anything. I still ate street food and it never happened again. A few years later, I had a kidney infection from working too hard in the desert and not taking a break to drink water. No charge. Both times excellent care.

My daughter had, at the time, what we believed to be life-threatening cellulitis.

As a companion to a chronic illness she has had since she was 4, she developed hot, red, rapidly expanding patches on her ankles/shins. They would appear unpredictably, and she was under treatment at home by an infectious disease doctor - but we were in Canada getting married when she had another bout.

We went to the equivalent of an urgent care system. We were treated promptly, with the same medication with which her infectious disease treated her at home. The cost, if I recall correctly, was around $25 US (for both doctor's visit and medication).

(We have since learned that her condition was not cellulitis - but at the time, the best minds in the US believed that was what it was. The Canadian doctor concurred, and treated it appropriately, promptly, and inexpensively.)

Where i spend the first half of my life. Whenever i needed care it was there.

My niece just waited 3 months for a breast biopsy in the US, under the VA system. She is young enough that any breast cancer she might have would be likely to be extremely aggressive - a 3 month wait is not appropriate in any event, and even less so at her age.

On a school study abroad trip in college, I came down with a cold. We stopped at a pharmacy, where I was seen by an actual MD (not a pharmacist), and told to take certain medicine. All I had to pay for was the inexpensive medicine, which was something not available in the US. I don't know how official all that was, but I know in the US I'd have paid something for the physician's exam.

a pharmacy and although I speak no Spanish and they no English, was able to pantomime my symptoms. The drug they gave me for about $5 cleared everything in about 36 hours.

Sorry. Just commenting on how easy it was to see a doctor the medicine was just some kind of cough suppressant.

That would fix most of the issues. People should be allowed to buy Medicaid based on a sliding scale according to their income. Then give Republicans what they want in regards to being able to sell and buy insurance over state borders. This would force insurance companies to be more competitive with pricing.

Saw a doctor, wrote something down on a piece of paper that he wanted me to take: cost nothing

Went to pharmacy got medicine that cost a couple euro and I was better in a couple days...have no idea what it was I was taking 😂

Didn't cost me a cent and there was no wait.

for an extended vacation. 1st week there was hit by a car. Internal injuries, 2 broken legs and a broken arm. Surgeries, casts and a 6 month stay in hospitals and rehab. Not one dime.

I just had a fantastic conversation with one of them about the differences in healthcare. He hates ours, LOVES theirs. In general their entire system sounds amazing. Insurance is in brackets and you pay like 10% of income or more if you want more coverage.. You make 4k/month, pay 400 which is less than I pay. If you don't make enough, the government pays your insurance, but nobody is allowed to be without healthcare. He said no co-pays, just go to the dr when you need to and have surgeries when needed. He had shoulder surgery and was in the hospital 3 days but only paid $30 which was for his food. Insurance companies are not run by the government, but regulated by the government so that they make a reasonable profit but not more than say 10%. If the profit is more than 10%, the people are given cheaper rates the next year. It sounded fantastic. Over there, you lose your job and they have to give you notice based on length of employment unless you did something bad to your employer. If you're out of work, you're not homeless. They will pay your rent and expenses for a basic apartment and enough money to cover basic expenses as long as you look for work. Nobody lives under bridges according to him. He actually laughed when he said that. We could learn a lot from other countries.

I did see them there.

And he did say there were refugees that got food stamps. Could be those... Also, could be professional panhandlers. Who knows, but the overall plan sounds like they try to avoid homelessness and promote healthcare.

where millions go bankrupt from health care costs.

overall breast health. No cancer, but the practice did all things related to breast health.

A dermatologist for full body skin health. (face, moles, unusual marks, etc..)

Usually took a week to get an appointment through a referral and I paid nothing. Not a single cent euro. Zilch. Zero.

Doctors were great. Facilities were nice.

Bloody fantastic! Yes, it has taken a hammering (thanks con-servatives), but it really is a national treasure and heaven help any politician who wants to take it away.

The Brits like to complain, but they do know what they have.

To address Cruz's comments - delays in receiving treatment; yes, often it depends on what treatment is required not dissimilar to America (where it also depends on what type of insurance you have).

Example 1: woman had routine mammogram, confirmed concerns, biopsy performed that day and results back within a few hours. It ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), she received a mastectomy two weeks later. The doctors and nurses were fantastic. Outcome was woman went home, where she was cared for by daily visits from the district nurse and open line to doctor's office. Doctor ready to come out if needed, but wasn't needed. Woman is now 3 months out and doing great.

Example 2: elderly woman had sickness and diarrhea bug - doctor came out and said just a stomach bug go easy and you will be okay. Daughter was called because her Mom was found by neighbor on floor. Daughter thought her Mom was too poorly for it just being a but and a critical care nurse happened to be on call. She came out and said she thought the Mom had had a heart attack and called the Paramedics. They ran tests and sure enough the woman had had a silent heart attack. Taken to hospital and put into the coronary care unit. The daughter called the doctor and he was so sorry that he had not realized. He has been several times to see the woman and they have formed a friendship.

I'm not saying the NHS is perfect, but in these two cases the NHS did great.

An interesting article from 2014 "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, 2014 Update: How the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally" http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2014/jun/mirror-mirror

For surgery with the surgeon that I work for.

Although can be a bit hit and miss depending on the doctor, if one does one's research, usually the outcomes are excellent, the people are VERY nice, and the out-of-pocket is very small.

Senator Cruz is counting on his base not knowing the reality in the rest of the world. For him, it is probably a safe bet.

The wait was really long, but the care was excellent and it was a flat fee of 100 EUR.

surgery and eventually came back to the States to have it because of the wait.

We have a customer, a Canadian citizen who was mauled by a grizzly bear while moose hunting in Alberta, Canada with his son in law. When the bear attacked this guy, the son in law attempted to shoot the bear but shot his father in law instead, blowing out his knee etc.

Long story slightly shorter...my customer was mauled and accidentally shot twice. He was airlifted to a hospital where he underwent in flight surgery followed by another surgery and an extended hospital stay in intensive care and rehabilitation services.

By the time I talked to him...roughly a year after the event, he told me he'd had six subsequent surgeries for tendon damage and infection (grizzly bear bites, as you could imagine). He was healing well and his prognosis was as good as could be expected for a fifty something guy who'd been mauled by a bear and shot twice. He was walking and almost pain free. His spirits were good when we spoke and I asked him, if he would not mind telling me, what his copay was after all of this?

His answer was "zero". He paid nothing. Then he told me that he was well aware that if he'd lived in the US, he would have lost his home and his business. He was grateful for his good fortune being Canadian. When the worst thing ever happened to him...his biggest concern was healing and not how the medical bills would be paid. What a concept!

My parents lived in Scotland for 5 years and my sis lived in Switzerland for at least that many and both loved the medical care. There were some differences. When my parents went to Scotland my mother was taking 17 pills a day, most if not all for high blood pressure. The doc in Scotland said "we don't do things that way here. You have to lose 10 pounds and stop smoking because I won't prescribe the pills forever. She did and was healthier than she had ever been.

Last summer we took our family to Europe, traveling at a pretty fast pace (we always do, no more than 3 nights per city) my daughter in law was nursing but left the baby home so she wanted to pump. She took a pump but it broke on the second day. Each city where we went had a lactation counselor online. We contacted them and they told us where we could "rent" a breast pump in each city/town. Cost? $1 per day. They were big, hospital style with a retail price in excess of $1,000 so they were really not for sale over there. The first night (before we discovered the lactation counselors) she went to a local hospital. They let her use they pump for no cost.

We love the European system.

It's a mixed bag. I have a solid GP who is awesome an very proactive and responsive.

There are wait times. I live in Vancouver and my daughter waited 14 months for her autism spectrum disorder evaluation from Sunnyhill. 9 months for an MRI because she was a preemie who had a brain bleed and cysts and they needed to check on those cysts as she got older. My husband waited 6 months for an MRI for a work related injury. He would have waited longer but because it was a WorkSafeBC thing it was expedited so the wait time was 6 months instead of longer. So that does suck. There's no sugar coating it.

We have prescription coverage because my husband's employer offers and Enhanced Plan. Without it we would pay out of pocket for prescriptions.

It's not perfect but I don't think any system is.

Ireland - crashed my bike, went to the ER, got a head Xray after about a half hour wait, lovely nurse who I had to convince I wasn't being beaten by my boyfriend, lovely painkillers, total cost was about $30 for the drugs. I was on a student visa and wasn't billed for anything else.

China - went several times to hospitals for severe food poisoning including a five or six hour stay to get IV antibiotics. That was a bit freaky because I was sitting in a huge warehouse sized room full of barcaloungers with IV drips - easily about 200-300 chairs and all full with people getting chemo and their families sitting with them to keep them entertained. It was like getting treatment in a factory farm or a rail terminal. But I never had to wait more than a few minutes to see a doctor and never paid more than $30-40 a visit, again, mostly for any drugs they prescribed. It's probably not a totally fair comparison though because I don't think hospitals treat foreigners the same way that they treat Chinese people. If you're white you go to the front of the queue even if you'd rather just wait your turn. And they push a lot of traditional Chinese medicine remedies. Like for allergies I was told to eat honey from local bees because the pollen in the honey would get my body accustomed to it. And they had this absolutely magic cough syrup - absolutely no idea what was in it but it was the business.

New Zealand - have had a few blood tests and an abdominal ultrasound. It costs about $45 a trip to see my GP, plus $15 for the blood tests. I had to wait two weeks for the ultrasound but it was free. If I had private insurance I could have gotten it immediately but it would cost $300. You can pay for a lot of other tests a la carte if you want them faster. Most prescription drugs cost $5-15 for a month's supply. I take generic Zyrtec for allergies and it's about the same as it costs in the States. The biggest pain is that a lot of drugs that are OTC in the States are prescription in NZ. Like Aleve and Sudafed are prescription only and you have to see the doctor (at $45 a pop) every time you want the prescription renewed. So I actually stock up on big bottles of Zyrtec and Aleve when I'm in the States and bring them back with me.

My only complaint about the NZ system is that you really have to advocate for yourself to get tests. Because they are state funded, the doctor has to justify ordering them or else you have to pay for them yourself. So the doctors don't go out of their way to find problems if they think there is a simpler explanation that won't require further testing. If you're really sure that something is wrong, you have to do the research yourself and keep pestering the doctor until you can convince them to order the test. Or you just pay for the test yourself using private insurance.

That's probably true in the US as well though for Medicare and the VA, etc, I would imagine.

Especially if you have a "wait and see" type GP.

When I was a kid in the States I was on my parents' old school civil service Cadillac health care plan where they would order an MRI if you sneezed too hard.

Compared with that, the NZ doctors seem very hesitant to go digging around for problems.

You do get free tests (mammograms every two years, for example) but you have to ask for them. The doctors don't chase you to remind you that it's time for your next screening test.

And you can go into the lottery for all kinds of state-funded elective procedures like cosmetic surgery, in vitro fertilisation, etc. I think that's an unusual feature of the NZ system. In most other places there's a hard no on state funding for elective procedures.

so Cruz is full of shite.

Obamacare is excellent for the majority from what I hear.

Medicaid is lacking but those who are on it eventually figure out how to make it work for them.

A passing car kicked up a small sliver metal which stuck in her eye. We walked to a nearby clinic and waited a whole 5 minutes before a doctor took a look. 30 seconds later he tweezered it out, gave her some cream and an eye patch and sent us back on our vacation. I asked how much it cost. He just laughed and said "Niente" (Nothing)The eye healed up in a day.

Health care is decent, sometimes great, but it's not the paradise some seem to make it out to be. When my wife took early retirement at age 60 due to healt reasons and mobbing at work, I had to jump in with 400 euros a month, or she would have been without health coverage until age 65. There are hundreds of thousands of Germans without any health coverage at all. Tiny compared to the USA, but far from universal coverage. When I had my first ride ever in an ambulance last year, the bill was swift in coming: 650 euros for a fifteen minute ambulance ride,

When I moved here, I looked for health insurance, and was asked about pre-existing conditions. I said I had heart trouble, and they quoted me 2500 euros per MONTH--about $33,000 a year for health insurance (and some complained the ACA was expensive!). Beyond my budget. I work for an American outfit, and am still paid in dollars in the States, even though I have to pay the 50%+ German income taxes by right of my residence here. When I need medical care here in Germany, I pay up front, both for care and medication. My Blue Cross in the States usually denies my claims, using the excuse that they can't understand the doctors' reports, and I am usually out of pocket for all medical expenses here in Germany. It's still cheaper than $33,000 a year, and if I have anything drastic, I can always fly home.

When my wife was diagnosed with her second round of cancer last fall, she did get great care, but that was because she was referred to a local specialist who happened to be in our area (Düsseldorf). If it hadn't been for that, she might be dead by now. Her mom, who will be 90 this year, lives in a rural area well to the north of here, and gets rotten care. It's not the most attractive part of Germany to live in (their equivalent of flyover country), and the best doctors don't flock to work there. She has arrogant, uncaring doctors who make misdiagnoses all the time.

If you are a German with proper paperwork, or a tourist passing through, the care here is often better than adequate, but it is definitely NOT the paradise some would like it to be.