I can’t go into much detail, but I know a lot of people with medical problems who aren’t being seen by doctors in the US. Time and again I see people who have what I know to be fairly routinely urgent medical concerns that do get told by the ER that they have to wait for a specialist… 6+ months out. I’m sorry, but an infection doesn’t wait 6+ months for you to put them on some basic antibiotics that a PA or I think even some nurse practitioners can prescribe in certain jurisdictions.
I remember when I was in the military (circa 2008), I had a colleague who told me his mother died on the sidewalk outside an ER because they couldn’t afford any insurance and the hospital refused to see her. I didn’t believe it, I though that it couldn’t possibly be a thing in the US. But I keep seeing parallel issues time and again, but now it’s for basic things and not because of insurance, but providers and networks are so fucked up that people must be dying from these things.
I know someone who worked in billing and claims for medical insurance too. They share horror stories about double leg amputees being denied a wheelchair…
Hope I don’t get an infected cut or something, even with my decent insurance who the hell knows at this point!
It’s not as ghoulish as the states, but I work in healthcare in Canada and our system is collapsing. We also can’t get specialists, no one can get a GP (literally no doctors in rural areas and years long waiting lists in cities), walk-ins shut after the first couple hours cause that’s all the patients they’re taking, emergency is full, ambulance and RAAPID are full, some hospital emergency rooms shut down on weekends and holidays cause there’s no nurses or doctors so good luck people of x community, we have so many people stuck in inpatient medicine or mental health cause we don’t discharge to street (good) but also don’t have any long term care or socialized hosuing with supports (bad) so people just stay at the hospital for years and years.
My hospital has a whole bunch of brand new radiation equipment for cancer- useless because we can’t get radoncs and why would we, who would go to school for that many years and then choose to be in my shithole community
But!! People aren’t denied most care because they can’t pay (some weird edge cases and then stuff like pharamcare isn’t socialized but whatever). That does make a huge difference. We also don’t have an entire medical insurance bureaucracy weighing us down or acting like so much drag on top of our issues.
No you don’t get it, if you have to wait either way then the only difference is in Canada I could be on a wait list. Here i just have no healthcare at all. Like oh no i’d have to wait in Canada? I’d have to wait here, but also here i can’t afford shit
Two years ago I slipped on the ice and shattered my right leg. This was in one of Canada’s biggest cities
It was almost eight hours before I was even seen at the hospital. After tests confirmed I had destroyed the ankle, I was very luckily placed for emergency surgery the next morning - at this point about 13-14 hours away
The hospital refused to let me stay anywhere. I was discharged and sent home to wait a handful of hours in immense pain before the surgery. When I say discharged however, I mean a nurse asked for my height, grabbed crutches that kinda fit (I learned later that the reason I struggled for two months with them was they were far too tall for me) and leaned them in a far corner out of reach then disappeared. I waited for almost 45 minutes before using my boot to hook the wheelchair nearby, drag it over, and drag myself to the crutches. The doctor’s suggestion, when I pointed out I had no easy way of getting home, was to take public transport
In February. On an icy day I’d already broken a leg, with an exposed right foot and crutches too tall to get around on. I’d been able to scare up a ride, but I’ve never felt so fucking shocked at the state of our healthcare before
yeah the situation in Canada is terrifying.