But Costa Rica has one of the longest wait times for non emergency surgeries.
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/f8ac5867-en/index.html?i...
So high wait times there doesn't sound entirely perfect either.
Wouldn't this partly be a sign of markets deciding what wait time is worth it? For non-emergency surgery, like cataracts or knee replaces cited in the data, people can live with the conditions. It looks like wait times are consistent, meaning the backup isn't growing steadily over time. I'm pretty sure that would mean different populations just have a different threshold for how long they're willing to wait. If it was a consistent imbalance between the number of surgeries needed and the medical capacity I would expect to see wait times grow over time.
The doctors in Nicaragua, the neighboring country, is as described in your comment, except the economy of the whole country is in shambles, and they also have to "voluntarily" participate in "government" political activities. Oh, and since the country is poor there are no immigrants waiting in line to fulfill those positions.