>I cannot imagine living in Canada and being put on a 8 month wait for something important but not urgent...
We have pretty long wait times in the US for elective surgeries as well. Not as bad as canada, but it can take a bit to get you scheduled for a hip or knee replacement.
Are these waiting times for someone with insurance, or someone on medicare/medicaid? You usually get a better level of service if you are on insurance, as the payment rates are higher.
Kind of? They pay less than say Blue Cross Blue Shield for the same procedure. Many doctors literally limit their medicare patients, i.e. "No more than 20% of my patients can be on medicare"... because doctors like making money too.
Just being insurance doesn't mean much. What the above comment said is true, many doctors don't take Medicaid or severely limit how many patients they have with it. Doctors aren't required to take any/all insurances. Medicaid is avoided because of low reimbursement rate combined with more litigious patients.
I can tell you as someone who was previously on it, it was hands down the best insurance I've ever had. I did not have any issue with getting procedures and drugs covered, which is more than I can say for the private insurance I've had over the years.
Do all doctors take it? No, but I feel like they are in the minority and frankly, if a doctor doesn't take it, I feel they are more motivated by money than caring for their patients.
Yes, the wait times are for insurance. Normally if they care about the medicare vs insurance distinction for payment, they simply don't take medicare at all.
We have pretty long wait times in the US for elective surgeries as well. Not as bad as canada, but it can take a bit to get you scheduled for a hip or knee replacement.