When would you like to see your primary care doctor? We have an appointment slot in 6 months you have no idea if you can get the day off for, but you can waitlist for an earlier appointment cancellation that you probably won’t be available for either…
And your PCP will only have 5 minutes to spend with you when you do get an appointment because insurance companies have turned health care into car repair work. Physicians get paid by the job (patient), the job pays “x” time, the insurance pays the least it can per job, so the medical office crams and many jobs into the alotted time as possible so they can make money.
But you don’t have to wait in the American Health Care System.
also, “long wait times”, at least in Canada, are often a result of gutting being done to the healthcare system at the provincial level by conservative governments in an effort to convince people to privatize, and some idiots always fuckin fall for it.
Same in Italy, hospitals don’t get enough found because the government (which is usually right wing but rarely center-left too) does not give enough money to hospitals and then (stupid) people say “look at Switzerland!! They do way better than us, we must do like 'em” or as some said a few years back “look at USA!!! With their private healthcare! They are doing good”
Yeah, good my ass, now they are suffering
The strategy is called “starve the beast”.
If you intentionally break something while telling everyone it’s broken, you are technically correct, but still an idiot.
It’s usually done under the guise of reducing taxes or reducing the size of government.
Usually done by our Republican (Conservative) Party spouting generalities like “taxes are too high”, “government is wasteful”, “private company could do better”. Somehow they always skip the part where the functionality is important and the private alternative is worse and costlier (but at least their buddies get to profit)
Apparently voters fall for it, without consideration for what is being cut or whether it really needs to be
And somehow we also keep falling for “reduce taxes” even when that only benefits the wealthy, and when that’s actually the biggest source of debt
It’s also exaggerated, in my experience.
It isn’t always exaggerated but generally lacks context.
Some types of surgery can have long wait times if they are non life threatening but can drastically improve quality of life which is very very frustrating.
The thing they ignore though is that most people waiting could not afford the surgery at all in a private system. Most people in Canada live very close to the border and American health care is more than willing to take their money.
It isn’t perfect and we should definitely be investing more in and trying to address problems but I don’t see how things like American HMOs are anything more then rent seekers.
In my experience it isn’t.
Relative has a non-life threatening issue that affects their quality of life. Didn’t know what was causing it. Had booked an appointment in Canada. Wait time 5-6 months. Came with me along to Greece for the summer this year. Within 3 weeks, they saw 3 different specialists, and did tests (and received results) that would themselves require appointments and waiting times. Within 3 weeks they had a diagnosis, and had started treatment. Ironically, by the end of week 2, they got a call from the first appointment from back home, that an opening was available on week 3.
Total cost for all doctors and tests was about 400 EUR ~ 600 CAD, because they didn’t have Greek social insurance and were paying fully private rates. That’s about the same as visiting one of those specialists in the private system in Quebec, if you don’t want to wait 5-6 months each time.
Greece > Quebec
I chalk it up to the fact that Greece has so many doctors, that they are actually supplying western european countries (UK, Germany) with doctors leaving for better wages. At the same time Canadian doctor boards act as if they need to do everything in their power to minimize the number of doctors graduating or getting their credentials recognized each year. I mean if they actually did try it, I don’t see how they could do a better job at sucking. I know stories of people who came to Canada to work in tech with a doctor spouse and they left because the doctor spouse would have to basically spend 4-6 years sucking the dick of the Ontario Board of Physicians and Surgeons to get Italian credentials accepted.
I never meant to imply that there can’t be long wait times, just that they are, in my opinion, exaggerated. I have had to wait for things as well, but having experienced health care in the USA, I could not really complain.
Canada definitely could improved, but it’s still night and day better than what’s south of the border, imho.
Broadly, as a New Canadian, I actually hate the fact that Canadians always compare themselves with the US, because the bar is ridiculously low. Of course it is night and day compared to the US, that’s true of basically everything Canadian, except, I dunno, the Americans with Disabilities Act, maybe? We need to raise our bar.
I just said that I believe it could be improved. My bar is higher than the USA, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m thankful that it’s better than the USA, having experienced both. They are not mutually exclusive sentiments.
The only counter-argument I have to that is the common refrain among many politicians who used to point to the American system as superior, which has only really started to focus on some of the cheaper options per capita in Europe in the last decade.
Or is the biggest lie “death panels” that will deny you help. Let’s ask Luigi
Luigi is a motherfucking American hero. Make sure you donate to his legal fund if you can!
He didn’t even do anything, I was playing chess with him at the time of Brian Thompson’s murder
For real, I was there we were taking turns!
Is “playing chess” what they’re calling it these days? Giggity.
No need to wait at all when for-profit insurance tells you it’s just not covered! So efficient. Best system ever.
I just had to wait for 3 weeks to get a refill on my daily asthma inhaler, one and a half of them without my meds. There was some sort of supply issue with my regular one, so had to get a new one prescribed. I had to deal with going back and forth with the pharmacy, doc office, and insurance company to finally get the approved brands/prior authorizations figured out. I’m glad my asthma isn’t too bad right now despite being allergy season.
I’m taking a wild guess here, but I’m guessing that folks in places with universal healthcare don’t have to deal with this sort of bullshit.
Kind of. I’m in Germany (but from the US), and while it’s leagues and leagues better than the US, I recently had a similar issue. I was prescribed a daily generic medication that comes in increments of 100, which had some supply issues. The name brand version comes in increments of 30, so I had to get my prescription rewritten for 90 pills instead of 100, because they couldn’t just dispense less medication than I was prescribed.
I ended up going two days without my medication, but it was still better than in a non universal healthcare system. I used the same medication in the US, and regularly had to skip a day or two around refills (once it took over a month to actually get my refill), plus I was only able to fill one month at a time and had to pay way more. In the US, I had to pay for: a monthly doctor’s visit, a drug test to make sure I was taking my medication, and a high prescription cost ($50-$330/month, depending on whether I’d reached my deductible and whether it was a generic or not). In Germany, I pay 8.50€/month for the brand name or 10€/3 months for the generic, no cost for doctor’s visits and no required drug test.
Luigi should have sparked a revolt. It’s a shame it fizzled out without even starting.
They were like “we can’t encourage copycat crimes” and i was more like “we should be so lucky!”
In Germany that’s fitting though (in most cases). Privately insured I just go to most docs when I need to, don’t have to wait for an appointment and don’t have to wait when I’m there.
People tell me they’ll sometimes have to wait maaaany months for an appointment. Even years for areas like psychotherapy.
Still better than the USA though, obviously.
You have to wait under the current system, too. I’d rather not be paying $500/mo for the privilege.
Well if you wait, they still get the money each month. Win for them.
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I had a severely herniated disc to the point where I spent a good six months or so on opiates and stuck laying in bed. Was ok to walk short distances after a while so it was considered low priority for surgery. 3 year wait time, but I finally had it done and went home after a night in the hospital. The opiates were ~$12 for a month with no insurance. Was able to get the monthly prescription with a phone call and pick them up from any pharmacy.
The surgery and hospital stay cost me $0, and was given strong meds to take home for post op pain. Also free. (In Australia).
Idk if I’d have even gotten surgery in America, Luigi killed the United cunt because he was denied treatment for the same issue. Like, what’s the point of insurance if there’s a chance they won’t even give it to you at all? And if they do you’re still probably so out of pocket that you’re worse off anyways.
Like yeah, I wish I’d been treated sooner. It fucking sucked and I’ll have back pain for the rest of my life. But I had the option to go private and go into debt if I wanted to. Americans don’t even have a choice.
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They don’t give a shit how long you wait here, just that having to wait there is why we shouldn’t do it
What’s “universal” is that it’s fast if you have enough money and connections
What’s not necessarily universal is the “poverty via medical bills”
And a majority of Americans have completely bought this bullshit. That’s why workers will fight against any kind of single payer.
The waiting time has little to do with the payment and much more to do with having enough doctors.
Where I live, the universal healthcare has a guarantee for treatment within a time dependent on the illness. If the public healthcare fails to offer the treatment within that time and if you can find treatment in the private sector, the government will still pay for it.
Both the private and public hospitals are paid a fixed price by the government by the patient, so it doesn’t matter for the government (and taxes) who they have to pay.
The difference is that private hospitals can make a profit by keeping their costs lower than the fixed price, while public hospitals just need to balance. There are some overhead costs in the public hospitals, that are not necessarily present in the private sector, so it’s not impossible for private hospitals to make a profit without cutting down on the service. They probably still do cut as much as they can get away with, but overall they have to deliver the same safety standards and follow the same regulations. The government audits both.
Anyway, waiting time is an issue, but not because of how it’s paid.
Yes. Right now, you wait AND pay for the privilege of waiting! An absolute win!
