The Europeans commenting here are demonstrating just how fucked up and inaccessible the US healthcare system is relative to other countries with their delightfully innocent questioning, “why don’t you just stroll down to your local doctor and get that taken care of?”
For starters, Google medical bankruptcies in the US. I just did this with the intent of providing one concise link, but the information is so widespread, I couldn’t do it.
I have health insurance. For me to even say hello to a doctor is going to cost me $5,000 out of pocket.
The last time I had actual experience with a doctor was about seven years ago when my daughter had a sudden allergic reaction to an unknown substance. She couldn’t breathe. My only option was to take her to one of the many private for profit emergency rooms where they gave her two Benadryl and an epi pen. That cost me $1,600 cash. My insurance company told me that I should have taken the time to find an appropriate in network doctor and made an appointment to see my daughter, who again, wasn’t breathing. (To clarify, she was breathing, but struggling mightily to do so, so the five minutes to throw her in the car and drive her to the ER was sufficient time)
I’m fortunate that I had the money. Many people don’t.
And that’s for a simple pill that you can get in the supermarket for a few cents. Imagine a real chronic condition. You’re done financially unless you’re independently wealthy.
The best argument for universal healthcare is having to deal with health insurance. What an absolute scam. I have never had a good experience going to the doctor because of health insurance, and mine isn’t even that bad.
I think every member of Congress and their families should be forced to use the same healthcare plan as one of their average constituents. No discounts, no outside help with payments, no extra coverage on top to fill gaps.
I’m typically against government-run healthcare, but yeah, the insurance companies ruin EVERYTHING. I experienced how worthless they are firsthand, too.
I had a torn ACL and needed knee surgery with my insurance, so I went to the same doctor and same surgeon my housemate had for his ACL repair without insurance. After all was said and done, we compared how much we’d paid out of pocket and I maaayyybe paid $1,000 less than he did, while my insurance claimed to have covered like $30,000. And this was decent, corporate insurance that I’d been paying $120-170/mo for over the course of 6 years at that point. What a waste of money…
I doubt it was intentional but that first paragraph comes off as: “I wouldn’t care but it happened to me”
I’m terrified of ever having to take an ambulance. How the fuck am I supposed to know which for profit company will send a van out for me?
And so little of that money ever makes it to most of the paramedic and hospital staff. It’s insane that someone performing life-saving work on call makes, on average, $45k.
Even 7 or 8y ago people were calling an Uber to take them to the hospital instead of an ambulance purely to avoid medical debt. Healthcare is fucked in the US.
I’m terrified of ever having to take an ambulance.
Jesus, imagine having kids in America. First you’re stressing that they may need the doctor one day, then you send them to school when they have active shooter drills. I’d nope the fuck out of there in no time.
This isn’t accurate. In the USA, none of the above would even make someone consider going to a professional for healthcare. We would wait until Orajel would become lathered across half our dumbass smiles for tooth pain, or until something starts to make a limb or nervous system stop working appropriately, before contacting professional medical assistance. The ER is reserved for those with bones sticking out of skin, or people that feel like the ~8 hour wait is better than “toughing it out” at home with alcohol and/or opioids.
Can confirm. Had stroke at 21, family at my side as they called 911, and I vividly remember thinking “I’m not going to be able to pay my bills for a couple weeks, this is awful”. Oh, awful it is, but instead of not paying my bills for a couple weeks, it’s until I die.
I was aware that I had high bp, but it’s not a big deal, right? Only old people stroke out. Why is it suddenly really heavy and hard to move? Uhoh…
Isn’t it cheaper to fly to Europe, visit a doctor, and fly back instead of going to the ER?
Also for “normal” treatments. Getting a baby costs like $2000 in Germany without insurance. Plus flight and hotel for two months you are still far below 10K in total cost. 😁
I’m getting my dental work done in Colombia. Even with the best insurance my firm offers it’s cheaper for me to fly down TWICE, and spend 2 weeks in hotels and pay all out of of pocket than here in the US. Not a little savings mind you, close to $40k USD. Shit’s crazy.
Is that safe? My knowledge of Columbia is limited to what I learned watching Narcos on Netflix. But it did not look like a medically advanced country.
I used the power of search engines. Looks like I’m the big cities, health care is quite adequate. Have a nice trip!
Dental work is often also not covered in the standard insurance in Germany. You either have to get an extra insurance, or you pay out of pocket, or you live with the condition (all serious things are covered, cosmetics often are not). But even then the cost is usually on the hundreds, sometimes in the thousands. 40,000 is more than the average person earns here 🙃
Best not to base your understanding of a country on a fictional depiction of what a small part of it was like 35 years ago.
Isn’t it cheaper to fly to Europe, visit a doctor, and fly back instead of going to the ER?
I mean, yes, but in the case of flying to another country, you need the money up front. In the US, if you can get into the ER (some people do in fact get rejected), you don’t have to pay the out-of-pocket expenses until after.
Five years ago I had chest pain, I thought it was a strained pectoral muscle. It wasn’t until a friend asked my plans for the evening, and I commented I was wondering when I should call a doctor about the pain, and they told me “go to the hospital now” that I went. I was having a heart attack. So yeah. Americans avoid the doctor like crazy because you can either pay an insane amount of money to be told “take an ibuprofen and get some sleep,” or to be told you’re going to be spending a truly astronomical sum because you have twelve kinds of cancer. It’s lose-lose.
As a Canadian, I don’t like making fun of the American health care system … Americans deserve far better health care support from their government.
The other reason I don’t like making fun of it is that … our corporations, American corporations and Canadian conservatives would more than love to tear apart our health care system and privatize it all like in America.
We shouldn’t make fun of others and their situation, especially if they can’t or feel like they can’t do anything about it all … we should work together to protect what we have and to encourage more public services to be created where there aren’t any.
I have no reason to mock american healthcare. Sure, here in Belgium I can afford to see a doctor, but I don’t know if I can find one.
My previous doctor retired and all the other doctors in the area have a patient stop. They will only give you an appointment if you already are a known patient. I can only hope one of them is willing to take me the next time I’m sick.
My dentist has so much work he doesn’t answer his phone and doesn’t has an online method to make appointments. You have to plan your next appointment when you visit him and his agenda is usually booked for the next 6 months.Sounds close to what we have in the Czech Republic. And they even say that the doctors who came from Ukraine are “not worthy” to work here without a few years of reeducation.
Odd that your old doctor didn’t have a plan to distribute patients to new doctors when they retired.
At least my doctor notified his patients that he was going to retired. I have a collegue who found out his doctor retired when he got ill.
They’re retiring, they ain’t got time for that. My dentist did the same.
My wife’s doctor left the state hospital a few months ago. We didn’t find out until her prescription wasn’t sent to the pharmacy. Had to call the hospital to find out. They didn’t distribute the doctors patients, and they didnt even call in the prescriptions that only required a yearly check.
That’s the most tame story I have about that hospital and it’s the most luxurious hospital I’ve ever seen. It looks like a 4 star hotel. I considered suing them at one point but a family lawyer told me it would be too hard to prove fault, even though they were clearly at fault.
Not trying to downplay your plight at all, but in America this is also the case. Not only are doctors visits expensive to an extremely outrageous extent, but you might not be able to find one that can take you.
Waitlists for medical, dental, psychiatric etc doctors in my area are a minimum of 3 months long.
A few years ago I called the largest network of therapists in my area for an appointment. They told me I would be on a wait list and I probably wouldn’t hear back for 6 weeks. I got a call 6 months later.
Medical doctors and dentists are even worse. No wait lists at all. Emergency clinics full of low quality doctors and practitioners are popping up everywhere because most people don’t go to the doctors enough to still be an active patient. They don’t go enough to be seen because they can’t afford to go unless they are truly terribly sick. Those clinics charge far more, do far less, and care the minimal amount about patients.
A quick look in your ear? $150. You have a real problem? Well, they will charge you the $150 and then tell you to go to the hospital.
I have never heard of anyone in my area getting a dentist appointment in less than 3 months. To even get patient status takes a friend knowing that their doctor is taking new patients. And the chances are that if you can’t afford a doctor, your friends can’t either.
Damn, that sounds like it really sucks. Any idea why there aren’t enough doctors there?
Probably the same problem as most health care systems. Regular “general practitioner” doctors like family doctors or what we might call primary care physicians in the US are very much overworked and underpaid.
If you want to make money as a doc, you need to be a specialist at the very least.
I have a family member who is a GP and they said they wouldn’t recommend anyone become a regular doc. Too much work, too much paperwork, difficult schooling, and now nurse practitioners, DOs, and others can write scripts, the GP’s skillset is being undermined and their pay cut as clinics just use nurses to see patients instead of doctors. That’s the US anyway, but I imagine other modern countries’ doctors face too much work and too little monetary incentive to encourage others to want the job.
Sometimes it’s also stupid competitive exams that excessively reduce the number of medicine students.
I think it’s mainly because there is a limitation of the amount of students who can start the education. Every year the government holds entry exams and only the best 1600 can start the studies. Somewhere in their studies they have to choose their specialisation (heart, children, oncology,…) And as far as I know only a small part of them is interested to become a ‘housedoctor’ ( the type of doctor we have to visit when we have something like a flu)
Yeah, it’s terrible here. My doctor needs you to make an appointment, which is usually full for days (sometimes even weeks),… Last time I had something urgent I just went to random other one and explained mine was booked full… He took me, but he didn’t even come near me. 😅 It seemed that one had become a bit germophobic since Covid. Was weird to see a doctor act that way. 😅
You should be checking WebMD almost immediately.
Spoiler
You have cancer
Maybe it’s lupus?
Obligatory: House M.D. in a nutshell.
It’s never lupus.
Or maybe allergies. Ask your doctor about Zirtec!
I’ll show this to my doctor later when I drop by for something minor and only slightly inconvenient that doesn’t really require a medical professional‘s eyes because I can do it for free. 🇪🇺🇩🇪
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Last time I visited the doctor here, I paid 300 NOK (egenandel) and got the meds for free. When my appendix tried to kill me, I had to pay for the tram ticket ride up to the hospital and the tram home the day after. Cost me 60 NOK in total
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It’s not totally free here either, I was mostly making fun of the Americans. We have a similar co pay system where you have to pay a small amount for most minor medications and treatments, up to a yearly maximum, beyond that it is completely free (you still have to do the co pay but your insurance will fully reimburse you for anything beyond the maximum).
For example, I had a nasty accident last year which broke my ankle in three places. The ordeal required ambulance transport to the hospital, multiple surgeries, MRIs, roentgen scans, various other procedures, several weeks of hospital stay, crutches and about a years worth of twice per week physical therapy and doctors appointments. Overall I paid maybe 200€ out of pocket.
I wish I could just waltz into their office without a time inconvenience, but same. 🇲🇽
USA! USA! USA!
i’m american so this may influence my comment but – it is so fucking irritating when people casually suggest online ‘taLk tO yOuR DocToR!’ like yeah it’s definitely exactly as trivial as you imagine, sure. not to mention, i’m surely able to candidly speak about my issues and receive an honest, no bullshit response as easily as i would’ve if i just posted, right? because it’s that trivial of a matter? hearing a man in a coat tell me to simply drink water and do bed rest is just as helpful as someone online linking me to a youtube video on how to clear your sinuses.
it’s 2023, jesus christ
As an European, I don’t understand the point you are trying to make, sorry. Why would you trust YouTube over a doctor? Am I missing something?
It can be very difficult to get a doctor’s appointment, find time when they are available, and get work to let you have time off. At some places it can feel like the doctor is trying to get out of the room with you as fast as possible, so if you forget to ask something you’re out of luck. That doesn’t even get into the anxiety around how much a doctor’s visit will cost. On top of all that, sometimes it doesn’t feel like the doctor is trying to work with you to solve a problem, but rather just feeds you a line that they’ve been told to say.
There are complex reasons for this. For example, maybe that youtube video on clearing your sinuses could result in a worse infection. The doctor will tell you not to do that, and to get sleep and drink water. But the advice to get sleep and drink water feels almost patronizing with how difficult it is to get the appointment.
At some places it can feel like the doctor is trying to get out of the room with you as fast as possible
And at other places, they’re just sitting in front of a computer terminal trying to figure out what kind of information about you to type in.
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Getting an audience with
youran actual doctor can be a real process
I also have no idea what you are trying to say.
I was just at the doctor a couple of times in November. Turns out I had a bronchitis, possibly with a bacterial superinfection.
So I was at the doctor to
- Check if my lungs were affected. is there a danger of a lung infection?
- Do I need antibiotics or should I sit it out?
- Get a doctors note (I was on sick leave for three and a half weeks)
This is nothing I could google. I actually did google and did not find bronchitis as an issue, but cold, influenza, and lung cancer. Google does not know how my lungs sound when I breathe.
So of course you should ask your doctor and not the internet.
I think they’re trying to say that googling your symptoms is free but going to the doctor is way too cost prohibitive and might result in your paying a ton of money just to hear that you should get more sleep or take some Advil.
Also that’s if you see a doctor. You may see a PA who gives you 15 minutes and sends you home with a nebulizer.
Ah, I see. I kind of get that. Hate to go to the doctor for a sick note, when I know I just need sleep and tea.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
existential sigh
me just going to the doctor and paying only €8
This looks like the solutions of my GP here in europe. Maybe I should move to the US.
It do be like that sometimes
How I handle most things.
Honestly you shouldn’t immediately go see a doctor if somethings a bit wrong. (Unless you are older or have other health risks)
Why not? I do a lot of preventative medicine. In the long run, it’s cheaper for the system. If I detect something out of the ordinary and recurrent, I go to the doctor and we check it. If some day it turns out it’s something serious, we’ll catch it early.
If you only go to the doctor when you have a lot of pain, or major symptoms, it may be too late, or it could mean a big surgery, or a lengthy and expensive treatment.
Doing regular checkups is always the best policy. Same is true for dental health. Go often, avoid big problems.
