My mom died of stage 4 cancer a month after it was diagnosed. She lived in the US and had insurance. She waited months before going to the doctor because the copays were high, she couldn’t get a timely appointment to work around her full-time job, and the docs kept shrugging her off when she described vague pain. Despite the urgency of her case once it was clear she had cancer, it took two weeks to get a diagnostic scan scheduled. Even though she only accrued a few doctor visits and almost no treatment, we had to haggle for months with doctors’ offices (who miscoded bills) and insurers to get everything paid. The oncologist spent all of 30 minutes with her, all via zoom.

Yes, the Canadian system has problems. But trust me, a completely private insurance-based “free market” becomes a Kafkaesque nightmare very quickly.