[GreenPlastic]

The quality is also better if you have insurance. Firstly, because it's easy to see a specialist. Our friends in Canada don't even know you're supposed to see specialists for a lot of ailments. Second, most facilities have access to diagnostic equipment that even hospitals might not have in Canada (MRI machines, etc).

[kaitai]

We see these as positives in the US (yay! more specialists! more MRI machines!) but they don't improve outcomes on a population basis and they drive up the cost of care. An MRI machine at every hospital in a metro just means that every hospital will try to get you to use them -- they've got to recoup their costs.