I walk into the emergency ward, take a number, give my id to a clerk, sit down and browse reddit Lemmy for a couple hours, see a doc, get some treatment if needed, and leave with a prescription, maybe a referral, and probably a parking ticket.
USA. Others have covered cost but I’d like to add how long it takes to see a doctor.
I have an established primary care physician that I’ve seen for years. Now though if I want an appointment I have to wait at least two months. So I have a membership with an urgent care near me that puts a $180 cap on visits to their chain of urgent cares. There is obviously no on going care with them but most of the time that’s okay.
A friend of mine doesn’t have an established PCP and to get one he must wait at least a calendar year….
I haven’t seen my pcp in like 3 years. $200 to go in for no reason and have them tell me I’m fat? No thanks.
I should probably diy bloodwork though just to make sure I don’t have elevated white blood cell counts or sth
Edit: the wait for pcps is structural bc they don’t earn the same exorbitant salaries as specialists but still have to pay backbreaking med school costs, so there’s a shortage.
I had an appointment for my annual physical in June that I had to reschedule. I called a couple of days beforehand, and the first time they could see me was in November.
We really are lucky as Americans not to have the crazy long wait times that other countries do, right?
Holy shit, that’s crazy. So if you have like, a really bad cold or something and need to see the doctor, you’ll be recovered by the time you get an appointment??
Makes me pretty grateful to be able to get same-day appointments, or at worst, the day after.
If you’ve recovered from your cold before you can get to a doctor, then you didn’t need to see a doctor. It’s almost as if humans have some kind of immune system to deal with common viral infections
If you are wondering why it takes months to see a GP it’s because fully 50% of my consults are healthy people with self limiting viral illnesses.
Each one of those appointments makes me unavailable to see someone else who may or may not have offensive vaginal discharge.
If people just got out of the mindset of “my kid has a cold, I need to see a doctor to get checked out” or even worse " I have a cold, I need antibiotics" then maybe I can spend my day treating actual medical problems instead of telling people to go home, have some vitamin C and drink plenty of fluids.
Where do you live that makes you wait a year for an appointment with a PCP? I’ve only ever waited a month or more for a particular set of specialists where I’m at.
Concurrunt public and private system, it’s obviously busier with less doctors in the public system, and it’s free. Specialists too. Expect to wait six to twelve months for a specialist.
Private system is affordableish but on the expensive end, especially with complex issues. Also expect to wait six months for a specialist, in complex cases twelve months is not unheard of.
Medications get capped at $30, unless the government doesn’t agree it’s a useful med, then you pay full price.
Late but USA, wanted to share a personal experience. While at work I collapsed and had to take an ambulance to the hospital. I got sent the bills for everything. Including the ambulance ride. I stayed in the hospital overnight for observation. They couldn’t figure out what happened and I didn’t have symptoms anymore so I was discharged. Whole event cost maybe $500.
Here’s the kicker, I work(ed) as a paramedic for the ambulance company that transported me. I had insurance that was not from the company so prices were reasonable relative to what one would expect in the country. Had I been insured through work, well, the insurance provided by the company doesn’t cover transport by that company’s ambulance.
In the US with private insurance. I basically just go online, search for providers in my insurance’s network, and then check a different list of different procedures and their costs according to my insurance. Sometimes it’s $30 if I’m seeing my main doctor, $30 for a specialist, $40 for urgent care, $0 for a specific telehealth provider, 20% for an ER visit etc. The main thing I genuinely like about my plan is that the monthly out-of-pocket price cap for generic medications is pretty low. That being said, I know a few people who pay $0 for 90% of what they need with everything else being cheap
Here in the US, if you have health insurance, any time you go to the doctor it’s $200. That’s if you have a doctor to go to. So we mostly don’t go, until it’s really bad, then maybe you have to go to the hospital, which may be a few thousand bucks on the low end and bankruptcy on the high end. You have no idea what you will pay when you go, they send you a bill in the mail that arrives 2-3 weeks later.
So we pretty much avoid interacting with the medical system at all costs.
If you do want to see a doctor or specialist it’s pretty easy since they are businesses, you just call them up and make an appointment. But what do I look like over here, John D. Rockefeller?
Your experience is real and is the case for millions of Americans, but healthcare insurance plans vary widely.
I work in a union job for a large nonprofit and I have excellent insurance. Visits to my PCP for preventative care are free, visits for anything else is $20. Specialists are generally $25. It’s also $25 for urgent care, $150 for the ER, though that’s refunded if you’re admitted. Hospital stays have no copay or deductible if they’re in network. All the major medical facilities near me are in network.
Monthly I pay ~$300 for my insurance, which is 12% of the cost, the other 88% is paid for by my employer. That covers me, my wife and my daughter.
Last year our insurance provider had a greater % of profit from our companies plan then legally allowed, so they had to refund a portion of our payments. My company refunded all that to us, so I got about a months worth refunded.
I’m fairly certain I’m in the top couple percent for healthcare quality, and it’s a real draw to me staying with my employer, though they’re great in pretty much every respect so it’s not the only draw.
I strongly support single payer healthcare because my experience is not the norm in the US and everyone should have the health security I have and feel.
Healthcare is all free to the patient (the one caveat being a small, fixed charge for prescription medication - which is free for some groups), all paid for via national taxes based on wealth. UK.
If we need a specialist Doctor, we are referred to one. There’s no money involved for the patient whatsoever.
Attaching an unaffordable fee to healthcare would be a clear barrier for anyone who is not upper class, and this would be seen as deeply discriminatory and thus unacceptable.
There is also a private health care sector, with its own hospitals. A lot of consultants work in both the public (NHS) and private sectors, e.g., one day a week they will have a private clinic at a private hospital. The private sector is funded by insurance, and this is often a perk offered by employers. Waiting lists are generally shorter in the private sector, but, in my experience, the expertise and level of care is no better than the NHS.
UK here. Everything is free at point of use (paid via taxes) except prescriptions. It’s around £10 per item. But they are free if you have certain long term health conditions, are pregnant etc.
To see a specialist your doctor writes a letter and they contact you.
In Mexico the government has their own health care system, if you are a Mexican citizen you have access to it for free (if you are a student or you work legally), it’s sustained by taxes that employers pay to the government, there are two health care systems IMSS and ISSSTE, depending on if you work for the government you get one or another.
These institutions will give you the treatment that you need and surgerys as well, except cosmetic stuff. Since these institutions aren’t optimal (usually takes a long time to get attention) you might prefer to use a private health care, and you just pay a private company for what you need or pay monthly for an insurance plan, which will cover certain hospitals and specific diseases
Sweden: Healthcare is mostly tax-funded. There is a small fee (for adults between 20-85 ) for each appointment. This fee lies between 150-330 SEK (~15-33 €), depending on which region you’re in. Emergency care is usually about 10 € more (40€), and an ambulance trip double (so ~60€). If you’re admitted to a hospital the fee is 120 SEK/day (in my region). Total fees paid for appointments during a year is capped at 1300 SEK (130 €), after that they’re cost-free.
The above is regarding “necessary” care, so things like cosmetic surgery, vasectomies, etc. you’ll have to pay more.
Access to specialist doctors varies, some you can contact directly (usually private practice), and others you’ll have to first make an appointment with a general practitioner at a health center, then get a referall if they deem it necessary. In my region there’s quite a long wait time for many specialists (I had to wait 6 months for a head MRI), and sometimes you’ll have to travel quite far because the care is only offered in one hospital in the region (My wife had to drive 200 km for a surgery).
Expanding on this: what is deemed necessary varies a bit between regions, in my region a vasectomy is covered, so total cost (3 visits) would be ~45€. Waiting time is about 6 months. But waiting time also varies a lot.
For most medical services, the govt will reimburse you a set rate. The GP or specialist can charge you whatever, sometimes the same as the govt reimbursement, sometimes quite a lot extra. You don’t pay anything at public hospitals (which are nice).
I recently had some great problems, I stayed overnight in hospital twice, for a total of 3 nights in private rooms, had an internal scaffold inserted in my artery. i also had numerous consults with specialists and drs.
The whole thing cost me about $500, a few days work on average wage.
Add comment