It seems to be dependent on urgency. I've got what's likely a minor labral tear that isn't significantly affecting my quality of life where the MRI is expected to take months. On the other hand, when I had a potential TIA I had an MRI done within a day.
Private clinics are also pretty readily available for imaging, for those with the means/will to pay.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4351597/
evidence suggests that in the presence of available ICU beds physicians tend to admit lower-risk patients to the ICU and use the ICU more for care at the end of life (4–6). These findings suggest that overuse of ICU beds may be mediated, at least in part, by excess supply. Yet the number of ICU beds in the United States continues to increase, from 69,300 in 1985 to 93,955 in 2005 (2, 7).
Getting a diagnostic was a bit tough though, she had to get multiple appointment before they found the cancer, but I think that's mostly because cancer can be hard to diagnose. Once they found it, it was too late and what was initially potentially treatable lung cancer, became 4th stage and reached her bone.
The day she was asked between fighting or not a lost cause is the day I understood how our system is so much superior to the US one. The government bought us 4 or 5 more months with her. There 4-5 months that would have cost so much, 4-5 months that she wouldn't have agreed to if they had to pay.
Once I forgot to renew my insurance card. I was still insured, but I just couldn't benefit from it directly, which made me postpone it later and later, until it was needed after hitting my knee quite bad. That day I also was thankful for our system, because I hesitated to go... it was the first time I experienced what so many people have constantly experience in the US. If I still had that card, I would have never ever thought of any of that, I would just go. That was for a situation where I would have been able to get it refunded too, imagine that. Finally it was only about 80$ to get a scan of my knee, the people at the reception didn't even know how to charge me, that was funny. The funniest is that you would probably save money by getting that scan here in Canada, I have no doubt that it would be much more than 80$ in the US and you would still have to pay your full 100$ copay.
Otherwise your ceiling looks more or less like Canadian care (your floor, of course, can be considerably worse).
But Canada only has 3200 ICU beds across the entire country. For a country of 35M. Canada has 2.5 hospital beds per 1,000 people, 36th out of 40 in the OECD. The US is only 31st with 2.8 hospital beds per 1000, similar to Canada.
My friends in Canada have had to wait months for things like MRIs, seeing specialists, etc. I got an MRI next day, $100 copay. Just last week one of my friends’ boyfriend had a “dark spot” on his liver show up on a CT scan, but the doctor never followed up and my friend couldn’t reach the doctor via phone. Another of my friends had to wait 2 years for autism therapy and right now has engaged in multiple protests in Toronto because Doug Ford has completely fucked up autism therapy funding.
So there are good things and bad things about it. In Canada you don’t have to pay but you are trapped by its bureaucracy that keeps its employees paid and you have no options. In the US you have options but it could be very very expensive.