America. Ideally you have insurance through work. Going to your PCP may be ~$50, same for specialists. Urgent care and ER will be higher, then there will be additional bills depending on what needs to be done and your insurance. Then there’s “in-network” and “out-of-network”. In-network will be covered more by insurance than out-of-network. It’s tricky for hospital stays. In my area there are doctors who are out-of-network working at in-network hospitals. So you will get 2 separate bills - one from the hospital and one from the doctor.
Honestly it’s terrifying having an emergency because you really don’t know how much it could cost. Most insurance plans have a max out of pocket. One number for the individual, one for the family. The lowest I’ve seen is $2k/$6k while the highest was ~$16k/30k. I’m in a LCOL city though. Max or of pocket is the maximum you should ever have to pay for a single year. You will almost definitely hit this if you have a baby or need more than a couple days in a hospital.
For people with low income there are sometimes assistance programs at hospitals. One common outcome is you go into a payment plan and maybe years later your remaining debt is forgiven. The payment plans can be very cheap. I’ve heard of $25/mo. Still it’s probably for a bill that’s in the thousands if not 5 or 6 digits.
If you don’t have insurance through work you can buy your own insurance but many people just wing it. Most hospitals will charge less when there is no insurance to bill. Maybe 1/3 what they would charge insurance. This will still be in the 4-6 digit range. So you go into a payment plan, or maybe there’s additional financial assistance from the hospital, or you just ignore the bill and take the credit hit when it goes to collections.
There are programs through the government, Medicare and Medicaid. They cover quite a lot but if you’re under 65 then I believe you have to be disabled to qualify.
The quality of care is generally high though, so that’s cool.
I write or call my GP, they call me in for preliminary examination and/or conversation to determine the best course of action. Blood tests are usually done directly at the GP, either on the spot or within the week. Other simple tests like blood pressure are done at the GP too. I get the results in an app, and the app also tells me if the result is low or high or whatever.
If I need to see a specialist, the GP gives me a referral and I find one I like, or they queue me up and I get the appointment sent to me in the government’s digital mail system. The appointment times vary but I’ve yet to be dissatisfied.
I go to the specialist, and they do their thing. Tests, interview, whatever. They decide on a diagnosis and prescribe medication. It’s assigned to me digitally, and I can either get the meds at most pharmacies or immediately on the spot depending on what you need. You might see a specialist more than once to change or adjust treatment.
This is where you might start reaching for the wallet. All appointments, examinations, tests, etc. are paid for with taxes. In total, my income tax is 43% and VAT is 25%. That’s totally fine by me. Medication prices vary of course. Some are free, some are cheap, some are expensive. Broadly speaking, people can afford their medication.
It’s not a perfect system, but I have confidence in it, and am generally satisfied. Most issues are human in nature - I understand that women and immigrants (like myself) might not get the same quality of treatment, which of course sucks, and shouldn’t happen. I haven’t noticed any poor treatment but that might be due to my personality, gender, race, etc. Dental care isn’t covered and is prohibitively expensive. I’d like this changed. Psychiatric care is rough, and doesn’t really apply unless you have… significant issues. I don’t know if you can get therapy through the system but the private stuff is prohibitively expensive.
Overall my experience has been a solid 8/10, and I’ve interacted with various elements of the healthcare system in Denmark
Romania you pay taxes from your salary or if you are a student then you are automatically covered. To access specialists you need a piece of paper from your designated doctor that confirms from him/her that you need a specialist.
The reality tho is that the state of the medical system is bad. Understaffed and equipment older then 40+ years.
Canadian here - pretty good outside surgeries. We’ve got a serious shortage of specialist surgeons up here so you’re usually best going out of country for important non-emergency surgeries.
In my day job I track the US Healthcare system and it’s even more of a shitshow than you imagine.
In Malaysia, you’re treatment are mostly covered by the goverment through subsidies. You usually pay a percentage of the treatment cost. The only exception is cosmetic surgery and certain high end medications, i think. Despite that, there are still people that is unable to pay the fee and the goverment still provide some kind of monetary support or the public hospital helps by paying the remaining fee using available fund. As a result, there are long waiting time for treatment and the public hospital generally overcrowded and healthcare workers were overworked. Thus, most of our specialist or other healthcare workers would escape this hell hole for a much better paying job in private sector or in other country.
In NZ for basic healthcare, you call to make an appointment with your GP, go in later that day, they give you a prescription and you pay $5 for the medication and about $40 for the appointment.
For specialists in the public sector, there is a long waiting period, like a few months sometimes. You can pay for a private specialist, but it is of course expensive. Completely depends on the type of specialist etc.
Dental is not covered by public health care because we still live in 1864 apparently where barbers are meant to be pulling our teeth, but we are getting very close to having dental as part of public healthcare.
A huge amount of medication is subsidised here, basically anything life-saving like insulin, asthma medication, etc. I have an infinite supply of paracetamol because I just get it prescribed when I go to the doctors and pay nothing for it.
It really blows my mind that the US has an objectively vampiric and unfair healthcare system.
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