Canada is known for a lot of things, ranging from hockey and moose to maple syrup and embarrassing dictators running the country. One thing that many uneducated Americans think Canada is good at is health care. I’ve had various Canadian friends throughout the years tell me the health care is terrible, and this past week showed me this hasn’t changed one bit.

I spent this week in Canada teaching a class. The first thing I noticed was the poor dental care. Well over half the people I interacted with had terrible teeth. Like, we’re talking “someone punched you in the mouth” levels of bad here. When I asked some of my students, all of them confirmed that Canada’s dental care is abysmal. Only 55% of Canadians have private dental insurance, and only 4% can get government insurance. Over one third of Canadians haven’t seen a dentist in the last 12 months. And its not just the poor folks either. The people I ran into working at nice hotels and nice restaurants had terrible teeth, folks that likely have at least some money, but can’t afford the care. The government can’t even afford to pay dental hygienists a good salary, despite rolling out plan after plan to do so.

It didn’t end at teeth though. Despite spending nearly a third of all government money on health care, Canada has terrible emergency room wait times. We’re talking 22 hours on average to be placed in a hospital…in Ontario. Not a small place, mind you. One of my students confirmed that most emergency rooms turn you away to stay at home unless something is absolutely life threatening. The regular care is not any better either. One student told me that his wife went in to get a referral for a dermatologist. 8 years later…yes, that is not a typo…they got a phone call for the referral, which they had forgotten about by that point.

8 years for a referral…I never thought someone could make Tricare look bad, but Canada, you take the crown!