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!
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.
Well the average is around 20-26 days. It can depend on the hospital and also the treatment. Sounds like you’re set up good, some people aren’t and you should advocate for them.
That’s emergency care. No one is waiting 3+ months for someone to set their broken leg.
Meanwhile, I’m dealing with what is likely some variety of IBD by getting up 3 hours early for work so that I can completely empty my bowels before my shift starts and I’ll have to keep doing that for 7 more weeks until I even get to see a GI doctor.
Less money = less staff, less maintenance, less services => more people with no choice but to go to Emerg, hospitals that work putting out fires all the time with less staff to go by… long term, it also causes people NOT too go into health care as a profession
They are literally planning to shrink hospital capacity
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.
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.
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
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.
U.S. wait times aren’t bad? When I tore my biceps, I was able to get x-rayed 1 hour after coming to the hospital, then got my surgery 4 days later.
Well the average is around 20-26 days. It can depend on the hospital and also the treatment. Sounds like you’re set up good, some people aren’t and you should advocate for them.
That’s emergency care. No one is waiting 3+ months for someone to set their broken leg.
Meanwhile, I’m dealing with what is likely some variety of IBD by getting up 3 hours early for work so that I can completely empty my bowels before my shift starts and I’ll have to keep doing that for 7 more weeks until I even get to see a GI doctor.
Can you give us a break down? How are politicians slowing down the speed of intakes - wait times?
I’m going to assume (against common sense, this is an honest question)…
Most recent example
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ontario-underspent-health-budget-by-17-billion-in-2022-23-watchdog/
Less money = less staff, less maintenance, less services => more people with no choice but to go to Emerg, hospitals that work putting out fires all the time with less staff to go by… long term, it also causes people NOT too go into health care as a profession
They are literally planning to shrink hospital capacity
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/03/08/ontario-health-care-spending-doug-ford-hospitals-long-term-care/
That’s… effed up. I mean that is a stupid fkin move. I never heard of shrinking hospital capacity, at least not in the sense of staff.
It seems like our socialized healthcare doesn’t cover our sarcasm detector organ 😅
My squeedily spooch!
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.
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