Well, lemme tell you a little story about having good medical equipment available... Of course some of this may be TMI.
One day last August, very suddenly, my *** started hurting really bad. It was like I was "clenching", except I wasn't trying to do that. That night I tried soaking in a tub to relax, with little relief. Went to bed. Woke up Sunday morning @ 3 AM soaking wet, obviously feverish. I finally said "fuqq this", got in the Royal Monaco and pointed it towards one of our smaller local hospitals (Grosse Pointe Beaumont). Incidentally, sitting on the RMB's seats was the most comfortable I'd been all day.
Hobbled into the ER and some older security dude tells me to get in a wheelchair. Normally I'd have resisted, (I don't need that!) but I didn't even have the strength to argue. Flashed my insurance card and saw a doctor within a few minutes. Described my symptoms and he snaps on the gloves. He says "I don't see anything, but you are running a fever." I then almost passed out. Before I knew it, maybe 5 more minutes, I was in a CT machine at 4:15 Sunday morning. By the time they wheeled me back to the exam room, they told me I would be staying.
Turns out you have a mucus gland way up yer butt. Like any other gland, a duct can clog. This happened to me and I had a super-big infection that could only be seen on the scan. Had it continued, I could have gone septic. They put me on antibiotics and the next day they did a surgery under light anesthesia. By Wednesday I was back at work, although really I should have been off longer.
I contrast this to a story I was told by my wife's uncle, who is an anesthesiologist at St. Henry the Ford Hospital. A young kid came roaring up to the ER door with his very weak grandfather in the passenger seat. Because of his grandfather's dire condition, he was seen immediately without any "paperwork". Their ER team did whatever you're supposed to do for a heart condition, but it was too late, the old man's heart was too damaged. He was stabilized, but passed away. What later came to light was that this family was from Windsor. The grandson went to their regional hospital and... waited. Eventually a doctor took the kid aside and told him "
Bring him to Detroit, we can't do anything but give him an aspirin right now." Unfortunately the kid got lost on our (very confusing) downtown streets. It's a shame he didn't just dial 911 as soon as he crossed the bridge. My wife's uncle said the kid was sick with grief.
Yes, these are anecdotal stories but they're something you learn about when you live in a border town. We easily receive Canadian radio and TV stations here, so we see the stories and commercials for "medical equipment lottery fundraisers". I won't quarrel that the US system is
FAR from perfect, but our hospital parking lots are full of Canadian plates, that has to be for a reason. I'm all for improving it, but I don't want to depend on bureaucrats to do it. I've watched my southern neighbors trying that route for decades. 
