> They can see a doctor in minutes, get open heart surgery, and go home for <$8000 within a week, with a high chance of survival. The only requirement is insur

> They can see a doctor in minutes, get open heart surgery, and go home for <$8000 within a week, with a high chance of survival. The only requirement is insurance This is the same in any developed country (i.e. you can see a doctor if you pay), except that in addition to that most non-US developed countries also have the safety net of cradle-to-grave government run health care system. This means if you dont have $8000 you can also get heart surgery and dont die. Ideally with free & universal healthcare, you dont even get to the stage where you need emergency surgery in the first place. i.e. you'll be diagnosed and treated ahead of time when its not an emergency yet. I've used both public and private in the UK. The benefit for the private health care is you generally get to pick when & where your appointment is (vs public when you are often told when & where your appointment will be and you need to change your schedule to get there on time ... although you do have some leeway in picking your clinic), and the places you go to do it are generally nicer places to be (decor, surroundings etc). If you need something truly urgently, the public system will generally get you seen as quickly as private. If its not urgent, then the public system has longer waiting times (because the truly urgent cases are getting seen first). Typically the equipment & treatments available in public clinics/hospitals is as-good or even better than the private clinics, and all the surgeons and doctors often do both public and private work. tl;dr - Money generally just buys you convenience and nicer waiting rooms in non-US countries. The level of care is about the same IME. </anecdata>