There are some arguments over comparisons of Canadian and US waiting times flitting through the blogosphere, which reminds me of a point I've been meaning to make for awhile: You can't compare the upper end of US waiting times to the upper-end of any other country, because those with reduced access to the health system forego care, which doesn't happen in significant numbers elsewhere. So while the Right disingenuously trumpets the few Americans reporting severely long waits, they don't mention that the group who would populate that category are locked out of care entirely.
Here's how the dodge works: If you look at waiting times, you'll see that relatively few Americans wait more than four months for surgery, which helps folks claim that America doesn't ration care, and makes our system look pretty good on the waiting times metric. Here's what they don't tell you: When you look at who foregoes care, the international comparisons reverse themselves. About 23% of Americans report that they didn't receive care, or get a test due to cost. In Canada, that number is 5.5%.
Worse, the American number is understated, as in order to know you need a surgery or further care, you need to go for an evaluatory visit, and as it happens, many Americans -- including 36 percent below average income -- aren't even seeking that. And it's this group -- which is largely low-income, and I'd guess, largely urban -- who would, in another country, be experiencing terrific wait times. Here, they never get care at all. The studies misleadingly write them out of the waiting statistics, making it look like America has low wait times when the relevant population is simply never getting care at all.
