I am not "arguing" at least not on purpose.

the person that posted the "other universal services" that Americans receive (and it was a pretty good analogy) gave an opportunity to expand that analogy.

Just like every road cannot be patched because of limited resources in universal healthcare not every patient can be treated. This is not meant to be a statement of merit, merely one of fact.

>That’s a matter of funding, there is no reason we couldn’t fund it enough to get rid of all waits.

Yes there is. A country only has so much money, and they have to decide how to spend it. Canada has a population of 39 million and it has as many MRI machines in the entire country as there are in the state of Tennessee with a population of 7 million.

Do you think that Canada would like to have as many MRI machines per capita as Tennessee? Sure they would! Why do they not? They cannot afford it.

Canadian healthcare does triage based on need, but they also triage based upon availability of resources. Hip replacements generally impact older people, and in some Canadian provinces the wait time for hip replacement is greater than 80 weeks. Statistically speaking that means there are people dying before they can get the hip replacement.

First off, thank you for the reply.

Second off, I am not saying you are wrong.

But what I would like to point out is that without doing any deep searching I found three different news stories about Canada, Britain, and Ireland where there are prolonged wait times for diagnostic procedures, like MRIs. And diagnotic procedures are required to diagnose (or confirm diagnosis) so that treatment can be identified. Waiting three months for an MRI means you have to wait an extra three months before you get that knee operation.

"In March, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health reported patients waited an average of 105 days for an MRI."

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/08/10/news/wait-time-mris-imaging-services-have-canadian-paying-their-pain

"Before the pandemic, Canadians were waiting an average of 89 days for MRI imaging, according to CAR’s 2022 pre-budget consultations report. This is far longer than the 30-day wait time recommended by the Canadian Wait Time Alliance, an organization focused on identifying the longest medically acceptable amount of time a patient should wait before receiving treatment.

Come 2022, the Conference Board of Canada estimates the average wait time for an MRI will rise to 133 days. "

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/08/10/wait-time-for-mris-imaging-services-have-canadians-paying-for-their-pain.html

"NHS patients are waiting more than three months for tests including MRIs, colonoscopies and heart scans, with overall waiting lists doubling in some parts of England."

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/aug/17/almost-124000-patients-waiting-more-than-three-months-for-nhs-tests-in-england

"The average wait for a brain MRI through the public system is 126 days, the report points out, while private patients wait just six days."

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/public-patient-waits-120-days-more-than-private-one-for-brain-scan-1.4073560

Ever notice that universal road maintenance still has lots of roads with potholes?

Well, the road maintenance crew cannot get to all of the roads, there is a limit to how many manhours of labor they have, and also of the necessary materials (asphalt, tar, etc.) and equipment they have available.

And just like they have to decide which roads get fixed and which ones have to wait, universal healthcare has this exact same issue.

Often this is done with rationing the care by wait lists.

In the United States it is (mostly) rationed by price.

In the United States religious institutions get an exemption from certain employment laws. If the religion says no sex before marriage and a man comes to work at such a place and says "my girdfriend is pregnant!" he can get fired.

If the $2T in stimulus was not paid for with taxes and debt, please enlighten me, how was it paid for?