So you're against welfare. Yet you have no problem with others paying increased insurance premiums to subsidize your treatment. I wonder if you'd look at things differently if it turned out to be more than "nothing but gas". Perhaps something that required months of treatment and long term care.
I don't mean to belittle your sickness but of course you are being told to keep checking it every year. Even if it is nothing, DR's want you to keep coming back a) to limit their liability and b) to keep collecting from you. Even if there is a 98% chance that it is nothing, they will have you come back time and time again to check on it.
It can be better than the Canadian system only if you have the money to pay for it. I have never been a patient in the American system (thank god, I like my house). I'm not arguing that the QUALITY of care in the USA is top notch, because I think it is. My problem with it is due to enormous and unnecessary cost. Also, and not completely unrelated, the incentive for DR's to keep you sick and keep you coming back. I don't consider that an efficient system at all. You should take my assertions at face value because they are true. While I have no first hand experience with the USA system, my assertions are factual. The Canadian system is also not perfect, but at least all of our citizens are taken care of properly, regardless of their income. The quality of life would be improved in the USA if this was also the case.
Waiting in line for months on end to see a specialist, or participating in a lottery to get a primary doctor, or flying to the US so you won't die, is being "properly taken care of"? Perhaps these are somehow related to the canadian system not having "enormous and unnecessary costs". Ya think?
Except that if your statements were true and representative then Canadians would die earlier. They don't. In fact, they live longer -- even when comparing similar populations.
I believe that this is a common misconception with Canada's healthcare. Waiting in line for months etc. is the exception rather than the norm. While you do wait longer, the wait is certainly more than offset by the low cost. If the procedure is critical enough, you will receive the care on a priority basis.