‘We Want Universal Healthcare… Until’: Woman Points to Reports on Canada’s ER Wait Times

A woman is going viral after sharing her experience with Canada's healthcare system and pointing to reports about long wait times.

She says she now lives in the United States but previously lived in Canada. "As someone who lived with universal healthcare for 32 years of her life" in Canada, she says she "has a little bit of insight," adding, "I don't think that we are aware of what we are asking for," referring to Americans who suggest universal healthcare would be better than the system currently in place.

Woman Points to Reports About Canada's Healthcare System

In her attempt to sway the minds of those who say universal healthcare is better than what the U.S. offers, the woman explains in her video, which was reshared by X user @HistorianUSA1, that several reports highlight what she sees as the downsides of Canada's healthcare system.

One of the "receipts" she pulls up is a screenshot of a headline that reads, "Nearly 200,000 Emergency Patients Waited 48 Hours Or More For A Bed Last Year, Report Finds," which appears to have been published in June 2026.

A similar article from the National Post, titled "Canadians are dying in emergency rooms as wait times climb to 48 hours," was also published in June 2026. The outlet described Canada's emergency departments as "swamped," adding that "hundreds of thousands of sick and injured Canadians are spending up to two days or longer parked on hard stretchers or plastic chairs" while waiting for care in the emergency room.

The woman continues with, "We want universal healthcare... until we learn," before pointing to another headline that reads, "Number of Canadians who give up and leave emergency departments due to long wait times have increased fivefold."

She also claims that "emergency physicians are warning that dangerously long waits are costing lives" and that "Canada's own healthcare experts call emergency department overcrowding a national crisis."

But her rant doesn't end there. She goes on to point to other reports claiming specialist waitlists have grown so long that “some doctors are closing their practices to new referrals.” She also highlights a report from CMA.ca that states, according to her screenshot, that "nearly 6 million Canadians still lack regular access to a primary care professional."

One person in the comments agreed with the woman, writing, "Known this for years." Meanwhile, another wrote, "Welfare states are bullshit. They don't work."

Others, however, argued that the U.S. has many of the same issues. "Similar problem (or worse) in the US — MANY patients are held in the [ER] more than 24 hours waiting for a bed. It's called boarding, it's common, and the difference between the US and Canada is in the US you get a bill for tens of thousands of dollars for your day(s) on a gurney," one commenter wrote.

The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the claims made in the video. The woman's comments reflect her personal views and reference publicly available news reports.