Nine months. With insurance. I'm STILL fighting to get back on hormone therapy. There are five doctors in the region who can handle me with my insurance. Every time, the referral and approval takes months. The last two doctors refuse to treat transgender patients.

I got a referral to a different medical center, and after waiting patiently, got the insurance approval to go with them. Now I call them to set up an appointment, and they're telling me they don't have the referral and need some additional documentation to even speak to me.

This system is torture. For-profit medicine is absolutely violence, and anyone who shames universal healthcare because of "wait times" and "not getting to pick your doctor" is an idiot, an asshole, or both.

In Japan, I walked into an office, got treatment in five to ten minutes, and left. Actually starting care involved going to a doctor who apologized for making me wait 48 hours for my first appointment. Here, it's going to be at least a year before I can even start the process.