Reply #41: Yes I'm Canadian...

[Puzzler]

... think of it this way. What's the typical wait to go to a regular barber in the US? It sounds like a bit of a silly question, because it obviously depends on how busy the barber is. But, if he/she is too busy, there's always a less busy one down the street, right?

In Canada, some doctors work in groups of three or four, and share a receptionist/waiting area. Other doctors simply work by themselves and have more private practices. I mean, they all over the "map" and there's lots of them in my city.

Most clinics are open around 8am and some close as late as 10pm. I bet you I could, without an appointment see 8 to 10 different doctors in one day, if I really had to.

As for the clinics, you don't have to go to them. Just shop around for a single doctor who operates on his/her own. Simple. Lots of choice. Lots of doctors.

The exceptions are:

1) Specialists. They usually require a first referral from a GP.

2) The so-called "boonies", hundreds or maybe thousands of miles away from large cities or towns. Here, doctors may be in short supply. In other words there may only be one doctor in the general area. However, this has to do with geography, and not so much the medical system. The same problem exists in the US... think Alaska, and the old show "Northern Exposure", for example. In fact, the solution to this problem is MORE government assistance, since private enterprise tends to steer doctors away from the sparsely populated areas. The fact that there is any doctor shortage at all in these areas is because our system in Canada is NOT really socialist.