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Well yeah but you have those long wait times to deal with right?
Here in America, I only had to wait 4 weeks for a video conference (in-person would have been 6 weeks) with my primary care physician so she could recommend me to a specialist that doesn’t have any openings until mid-August. Thank goodness I live in the land of the free where I only have to wait 3 months to see a doctor who has about a 20% chance to cancel on me last minute due to a “scheduling issues” and leave me hanging for another 4-8 weeks.
AND I get to pay for some of it out of pocket despite paying monthly for better than average medical insurance!
USA #1
It seems like our socialized healthcare doesn’t cover our sarcasm detector organ 😅
Canada here… yes wait times are a bitch
But it must be clarified this is not a result of socialized medicine… this is mostly a result of Politicians (largely Conservatives) starving the system as hard as they can just to justify Private Medicine as the only solution.
Just to be clear, you should have read my post in the most sarcastic voice you are capable of. I don’t think 3 months is an acceptable amount of time to have to wait for a doctor’s appointment and I think it’s absolutely insane that I have to pay as much as I do for insurance and still have to pay something out of pocket for the visit. The only thing keeping me in this country is my partner’s fear of starting over in an unfamiliar place.
You say this as though wait times aren’t a problem in America, but they are. Funnily enough, it’s one of the main arguments people use against socialized medicine. It is consistently the most disappointing thing ever; that people refuse to lift themselves out of their shit filled pools.
Oh yeah I tried to schedule an intake appointment with an allergist in early March and their earliest available was mid July lol
Edit: Grammar again lol
I’ve opted to wait a year to change insurance companies so I could resume seeing my old doc instead of starting the process as a new patient under someone else, because honestly I’d be seen at a comparative time.
A big part of the wait times is because of the healthcare coverage IMO.
In the USA, if you have a non-life threatening issue, that is more annoying than an actual problem, it usually gets ignored because nobody wants to go into debt for that… Unless you’re a millionaire or something, I guess.
Meanwhile in countries with socialized healthcare, if you’re even slightly unwell (and even in cases where you’re not unwell) you can get any number of procedures done to rule out any possible illness.
There’s simply no good reason to not get checked out if you feel the need to be checked out.
Just to be clear, the point of my post was that I pay for insurance, pay for the visit, and I still have to wait 3 months to see a specialist. I’ll then need to wait weeks or months for an appointment for any sort of procedure or scan.
I live in a place with socialized healthcare (Canada), and did a sleep study, which didn’t cost me anything, in January… In about two weeks from now, I sit down with a doctor to review their findings.
The sleep study is very much a non-emergency. I did it because my lady has complained about the noise I make when I sleep, I also frequently get bad sleep for one reason or another.
It’s non-critical, and I’ve spent more than six months waiting for results.
Bluntly, I’d rather wait longer than pay more. I know anything important/life threatening would be completed same-day, and I’ve had that experience too. Though, at the time, I wasn’t really in a life threatening situation.
That’s totally reasonable.
We have the option to go private too. My brother had his NHS appointment delayed due to doctors’ strikes so he went private and got his operation done very quickly.
Because he had insurance already it only cost him about £150.
Also, having the NHS as a direct competitor drives down the price, much like social housing did to house prices.
Its why certain types hate those two things.
Here in the States, the only non-private option is through the Veterans’ Administration, which requires that one be a veteran or their direct family. It’s also intentionally bad, overly bureaucratic, and extremely inconvenient (had to drive 40min outside of the state capital to get my then-housemate to a veterans’ hospital once because he, a disabled veteran, couldn’t afford care anywhere else), embodying the right-wing hatred of actually compensating veterans. In fact, right-wing administrations have been caught instructing officials to attempt to avoid providing veterans with their contractually-entitled care and benefits.
Those of us who are not veterans are stuck with the private US system when terrible wait times.
Always a fun time when you have to beg the ambulance crew to drive you to the VA instead of the closest hospital because it’s the only way the VA will cover your ambulance ride. Despite Congress telling them they need to pay for them three times. They even passed a law and the VA immediately ignored it.
Then God help you if they decide your emergency wasn’t actually an emergency. Because on top of all the other problems, a surprise medical bill was just what you needed.
don’t forget that if you live more than an hour away from a major metropolitan area, then you’re not getting care from an actual MD, but a NP or PA who just got their “degree” from bob’s discount medical credentials 10 minutes ago
If you want to argue there are bad NP and PA programs that’s fine. But on the whole NPs and PAs are graduate level jobs with strict certification tests. And honestly? We extremely over train doctors to just look at cuts, bruises, and stomach aches all day. For 11 to 15 years education they should be running the place and tracking down the hard cases.
For me the most annoying thing about it is when you specifically make an appointment with the doctor and they change it to the midlevel without telling you. For certain things it can be a bit distressing (for me) to have a random stranger come in to do.
Yeah that’s not good. They shouldn’t pull a bait and switch like that.
I’m forty-five minutes outside a medium sized pair of cities known for a decent state university, and glad to run into town for care as needed.
Landed in the hospital three months ago with something that got me a follow-up scheduled with neuro, in the practice associated with the hospital.
Three months to the day later, I’ve only just had the suggested test and the visit is still a month out…. With an NP. Not the MD who saw me in the hospital.
Honestly, at this point, I’m only keeping after that issue because I need their clearance to get surgery for my actual, pressing, immediate, and painful concern.
Most provincial governments in Canada are too trying to choke off social medicine (i.e. Canadian health care system) so corporates can come in and do a “better job”. Conservatives are pretty blatant about it.
Similar here in the UK. Its like, yeah, even if the model you’re proposing was better (it isnt), you can tell for a fact that its for the benefit of the wealthy and at the expense of the 99%, simply by whos saying it.
I mean, its like taking parental advice from a convicted paedophile. In the same way, why would anyone take advice on socialised medicine from someone you know is trying to fuck your socialised healthcare system.
Yep. Alberta is currently breaking up Alberta Health Services in a clear “Divide & Conquer” attempt.
I guess another warning is to keep your eye on public education too
And utilities and transport and prisons, no public responsibility should have private interests in control.
Hopefully Labour will do something revitalise my NHS which has been absolutely raped by the greedy criminals current in charge.
Canadian voters do a good job at supporting conservatives.
I mean, Alberta is. I don’t really feel that in BC. Not sure about other provinces.
It’s really bad in Ontario. Wait times are regularly hitting ~20 hours in our emergencies and it’s near impossible to get a family doctor.
edit: but at least we’ll have beer in corner stores next year! 🙃
Buck a beer changed my life. Thank you Ford voters. /S
And to imagine, people in QC sometimes drive to ON for emergency care because our wait times are even longer.
Bless the BCNDP. I disagree with them on various issues but kneecapping our healthcare system is not something I’m worried they’ll attempt.
Meanwhile, here in the states, thanks to financial help from my mother, the over $10,000 in medical debt we’ve racked up over the past year is less than $10,000!
I hit my maximum out of pocket for the year.
Our system is so fucked up I’m actively wanting all the major medical issues coming over the next decade to hit all at once right now.
I watched Hank Green’s stand up today and he let out the secret to cancer in the US. It’s the one thing the health insurance industry doesn’t want you to know! Just make sure to get your cancer at the start of the year so you can max that deductible and get free healthcare the rest of the year!
You joke but…
I was in a benefits meeting a few years ago led by the insurance rep for our employee health coverage.
Deductibles came up.
I raised my hand and asked, “So if I go skiing for Christmas and snap my femur on December 26, it behooves me to delay any treatment until January 1, right?”
She didn’t miss a beat and said, “Yes, that’s correct.”
There was a stunned silence in the room from that one.
Yup. National coping humor. But there’s nothing wrong with the US, really! I swear!
Free healthcare
When I got married, the US medical system gave me a wedding present of about $2k in medical debt for my wife’s sprained ankle. Was a great way to help newlyweds not afford to keep the (rental) house heated during the following PNW Fall/Winter.
Cue Americans angry that other countries don’t force their citizens into bankruptcy for getting sick in 3… 2…
Nah, I just get annoyed when people rub their free healthcare that we already know about in our faces. Especially on a site like this where most everyone agrees that the US healthcare system is trash.
The relatively small population of Lemmy makes these kinds of posts feel even more like a circlejerk than on other social media.
The odds of reaching someone who hasn’t heard this beaten to death are so slim.
We rub it in until you finally do something about it. Dont act like the majority of americans knows their system is trash when you still have half of the voters voting for a party that wants to make it even worse.
Yeah I agree. Things have to get bad enough for us to want to discuss politics with our crazy family members. Many will choose war instead.
We feel do completely overshadowed by American sports and culture that we take what few victories we have and run with them.
Trade you baseball and basketball for your healthcare…
Trade you Putin for baseball and basketball. Or for anything else, just take Putin.
I’d trade all of our sports and reality TV for it
Overshadowed by American sports? Culture, yeah - but sports?
What makes me really sad as a non american is that a lot of research and medical progress comes from america, financed by medically bankrupt americans and the rest of the world gets to enjoy it for free. I had an ex that had a brain tumor and there was a experimental american drug that used to cost thousands of dolars a dose. They sue the government for it and got them to pay for the entire treatment. 10 doses 100% paied for by our public health care.
Even more sad? My dog had diabetis and the public vet clinic would give us insulin and needles for the whole month for free.
a lot of research and medical progress comes from america, financed by medically bankrupt americans
The real beneficial research is financed by taxpayers. The medically bankrupt finance the obscene profits of health care corporations and pharmaceutical companies, who do not spend much at all on primary research. The “research” they invest in is how to productize and market drugs.
even worst :( I’m sorry
The real beneficial research is financed by taxpayers.
As expected. Privatization of assets and nationalization of expenses.
So that’s what civilization is like…
It’s not free, it’s paid from taxes. Money that’s not spent on bombs and such.
Different priorities, I guess. 🤷
It’s free as in freedom
Yeah that’s totally something that would happen on Lemmy. /S
Such a reddity comment.
Good too see that guy kicking around. If he’s the one I’m thinking of, he ended up going to Ukraine at the start of the war to help out. Ended up along the border I think offering to help give first aid and be a gopher essentially
Just don’t look at the timestamp…
35 minutes ago
At first I read it as “y’all Mexicans” and was a lil confused
Mexicans do public health care tho
Yeah, it’s spelled “Muricans”.
imgur. now that’s a place I haven’t visted in a long time… a long time…
Well, not free…. Taxes and all that. But free at the time of service, sure.
E: not sure what triggered the downvote train. Nothing I said is untrue. It’s not free, it’s paid for with taxes. It’s not a dig against socialized care, I’d much prefer to have that vs the financial disaster that US healthcare is.
And yet somehow, they end up paying less for health care than Americans do…
Everybody is paying less then Americans do.
I’d rather my taxes be used for that rather than bailing out banks…
And the horrendously corrupt and unnecessarily extra military complex.
Not free I agree but I prefer getting taxed a lot and have those services rather than not.
The way I see it, if we tax for example fuel, well the price of fuel rises for the customers, so customers buy less fuel, then fuel companies lower the price so their stuff gets bought and now your fuel is around the same price as before, but you have free healthcare.
Yeah, you are right. In Germany we pay pay around 15% of our montlhy income for it. I too would not want to trade it in any way, but yeah, you pay for it.
It’s free as in freedom
Well Americans also pay for medical expenses in taxes as well as at time of service, we get double charged.
remember that time canadian socialized medicine told a vet in a wheelchair that it would take too long to get the help she needs so wouldn’t it be better if she just euthanized herself?
there’s pros and cons to every system
edit: just to be clear, i agree nobody should have some insane medical debt from a broken arm. in american when i broke my arm i went to a private doctor and paid a couple hundred bucks. it was fine, not in the poor house over it.
That doesn’t sound like a problem with socialized medicine, so much as a problem with Canada’s socialized healthcare system.
Like I’m pretty sure their right wing has been doing everything they can to dismantle their healthcare system. That’s definitely going to reduce the speed and quality of care.
Not even that. It is a problem witj one individual who made a dumb comment.
So the problem is that we know about it? Because you know that happens everyday silently with the homeless in America. You just don’t have to hear about it.
Socialized healthcare is infinitely better. It’s not perfect. Nothing’s perfect.
As opposed to not say anything and quietly watching them die?
My wife works in the American Hospital system. Had a old homeless guy come into the ER because his foot didn’t exist anymore, and they gave him some pills and kicked him back into the street.
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Divide them into the ones thinking poor people also deserve to be healthy and…?
