Cadillac med plan = more income

[pauldun170]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

Actually there's more to it than that. Areas of high population density have longer waits to be seen and, because there is bureaucracy involved, those who are better at navigating such bureaucracy tend to get specialist appointments sooner.

I once arrived at an emergency room in an ambulance, after being hit by a car, and lay on a backboard for 4.5 hours before seeing a doctor. It was 2.5 hours before a nurse bothered to check if I even had a pulse. That was in Brampton.

On the other hand I got taken straight off the ambulance and into a ER, after getting hit by a motorcycle up around Caledon. They took me to the hospital in Orangeville (Debs's stomping grounds). I had X-rays done immediately and was out the door in two hours.

Jeez, I get hit by a lot of other drivers.

The difference was the population and area served by the hospital. Around major population centres you wait. In smaller towns and cities you get through almost immediately. Unless you're a motorcycle racer at Belleville General, that is. They'll let you bleed and moan for a while.

On the other hand when I busted my collarbone while (walking) at the track I knew where to go, to get an appointment within 72 hours with one of the top 5 orthopods in the country. A two hour wait in the early morning, in a downtown Toronto ER, saved me weeks on a waiting list.

As to the topic of this discussion, we've paid for our subsidiary health insurance as a taxable benefit for decades. The difference is that ours costs orders of magnitude less, because basic care is already covered. I'm paying for things like a private or semi-private room, rather than a ward bed.

That's no different than here in New York.
My wife is from Queens and she is still amazed about the difference in wait times.