> Also, the opportunity cost of sitting around with a broken hip waiting to be seen
This example is bad. New Zealander here: a broken hip will be fixed in reasonable time, and I think if you have private insurance it likely would be diagnosed, fixed, and recuperated in the same hospital.
Private insurance does help if you need a hip replacement. On public, you will wait for a long time, and you will be in pain for a long time. Private is much more proactive at replacing a hip early.
However hip replacement is that common that I strongly suspect you would be financially better off paying for it when you need it (whether poor or rich).
If you are from the US, you should take care before projecting any experience you have of hospitals upon other first world countries. I think your system is so severely broken you cannot reasonably model anything about a foreign system.
I live in Canada and my experiences are with the Canadian health care system in Ontario.
Edit: I have friends that live in the US and work in tech and enjoy better care. Like I said, the Canadian system is much better if you're poor but the US system is better for tech-worker income and above. This is why it sticks around: powerful people and voters in the US are likely to be old or rich-enough and enjoy good care.
This example is bad. New Zealander here: a broken hip will be fixed in reasonable time, and I think if you have private insurance it likely would be diagnosed, fixed, and recuperated in the same hospital.
Private insurance does help if you need a hip replacement. On public, you will wait for a long time, and you will be in pain for a long time. Private is much more proactive at replacing a hip early.
However hip replacement is that common that I strongly suspect you would be financially better off paying for it when you need it (whether poor or rich).
If you are from the US, you should take care before projecting any experience you have of hospitals upon other first world countries. I think your system is so severely broken you cannot reasonably model anything about a foreign system.