I can't do a direct comparison. I can only tell you what I've seen on tv when watching shows like "A baby story" on TLC. Basically - the quality is the same. We have access to all the same tests and equipment that an American hospital does. Rumors about long waiting lists are way overblown - I only have ever had 1 relative on a waiting list for surgery and that was simply because he required a really intricate surgery that only a few doctors in the whole world perform. Everyone else got their surgeries right away (within a month). I even had my gallbladder out 3 weeks after my first attack. My brother recently had a double hernia repair. No waiting lists. Well equipped rooms. I've had 4 babies, 3 of those were c-sections and I was never sent home before I felt like I needed to be. I stayed 4 days with my 3 c-sections and 12 hours for my vaginal birth (by choice, after a c-section, recovery for that felt like nothing, lol). When my newborn after my normal birth got jaundiced, we were re-admitted so she could be under the bilirubin lights and I got a bed too, right beside her, even though we were no longer technically maternity patients because I had left early. That same baby eventually needed surgery for bilateral trigger thumbs and from the time we discovered the thumb issue to when she got an appointment with a surgeon for evaluation was 2 weeks, and then it was another 3 weeks till surgery. And we were in a really remote area! We did have to travel for the surgery....My dad had a hip replacement and my XFIL had double knee replacements and the wait was weeks, not months.
Anyhow, I'd say the quality is very comparable. I can see my family physician usually within a day or so for a non-emergent issue and usually the same day. I never wait more than 5 minutes in the waiting room. The only thing I hate is the ER waits, but I believe they are comparable to you guys in the US anyhow (the longest I've waited EVER was 6 hours. Usually it's a 1-2 hour wait, depending on what it is. When my daughter split her head open and needed stitches, we only waited 20 min).
Plus, everything I've just told you, the ER visits, the births, the surgeries, the family doctor visits - all free. In my province I don't even have any provincial premiums like other provinces. I'd never want the US system and I don't think you can find any sane Canadians (note that I said sane and that means Kevin O'Leary is excluded) that would prefer the US system. We voted the guy that created our system the 'Greatest Canadian'. I think it's something us Canadians just might go to war over, LOL. We value our system highly.
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