[jeremyjh]

Wouldn't you expect to see that reflected in outcomes? TFA mentions that the only studied country with more avoidable mortality than the US was Mexico. If you aren't seeing it, maybe its not as big a problem as all the people who cannot afford any access to care at all while the country spends more per-person.

[twoodfin]

There’s not (typically) a regular measure of how much pain and disability a patient suffers while waiting for a hip replacement. It certainly would only show up in mortality statistics massively attenuated.

[swatcoder]

Sure there are. Population measures of morbidity, days of lost work, patient satisfaction, etc are all captured and studied.

Do you have indications that those are worse where wait times happen to be higher, or so you just take it for granted that longer waits must mean worse net experience?

[twoodfin]

Sorry, which measure most directly captures patient inconvenience & suffering due to wait times?

[beej71]

It would be an enlightening experiment. "Wait 2 hours or pay $5000 to be seen now."

[twoodfin]

Many universal public systems (not all, see: Canada) effectively allow this through private plans and private providers that supplement the government benefits, often notably for speedier diagnostics and treatment.

[wrs]

Oddly, the country with the expensive ineffective healthcare with lower wait times (citation needed) is also the one that doesn’t have guaranteed paid sick leave and other facilities that would make wait times less of a factor.