I was a medical tourist in the opposite direction earlier this year. I'm from Canada, land of free health care, and my doctor told me that I would have to wait 6 months to see a specialist.<p>My ailment[1] prevented me from sleeping most nights, caused severe, productivity-ending headaches all day, and caused me to pop ibuprofens like candy. My PCP attempted to use water to eliminate what he believed was an earwax impaction 14 times on separate days. It had been almost 2 months of me completely disabled before he was willing to put in a referral to the ENT. When he did, they told me it would be six months. You can imagine my frustration.<p>So, I had a friend drive me to a clinic in Washington state. A bit of discussion, $900 and two visits later, I had seen an otolaryngologist, he had used a small curette to clean out the ear canal, and I was better. $900 to not cry myself to sleep all day for six months seemed like a pretty good deal to me.<p>Six months later I got a phone call from an office of an ENT here in Canada. I was unbelievably angry.<p>[1] I had a condition where the skin had grown over the eardrum in your ear. It required surgery by an otolaryngologist to remove the problem and restore my hearing.