4 ms·

As mentioned below, the price doesn't matter when nobody is available to see you. Also, the opportunity cost of sitting around with a broken hip waiting to be

by aianus 7y ago

As mentioned below, the price doesn't matter when nobody is available to see you. Also, the opportunity cost of sitting around with a broken hip waiting to be seen can be higher than going to a privatized country/province and paying for the surgery, in which case you're a super-sucker who paid extra taxes for decades just to end up paying out of pocket for surgery anyways. Anyways, the US system is probably worse overall but it can work quite well (better than socialized medicine) for upper-middle-class people and above which is why it's still around.

velcrovan 7y ago
Funny, I have a sister in Canada and a sister in Switzerland, neither of them have had trouble getting ultrasounds. My wife's grandmother is also in Canada and was treated the same day for her broken hip. I'm really sick of being told things are impossible in the US that are normal in other developed countries.
- aianus 7y ago
  I live in Canada and have waited 4 months for a specialist at great personal cost (but not financial cost). I have also seen my mother suffer for 6 months on a surgery wait list and then recover slowly and painfully in a room with 4 other people who were constantly screaming during the night. And she was a lucky one because the hospital was so overcrowded that other patients were living, sleeping, and recovering in the literal hallway. Google "hallway medicine Ontario" to see I'm not making this up. It's not a perfect system by any stretch and it's much better than nothing but I bet upper-middle-class and above citizens in the USA enjoy better care.
  - johnpowell 7y ago
    I live in the United States and in June of last year I was told to make a appointment with a ear, nose, and throat doctor. So I called and was told the earliest they could see me was in October. I started chemo before my original appointment with that doctor. (Yes, it was mouth and neck cancer)
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  Interesting to note that Switzerland has a system of mandatory health insurance that Obama care was partially based on.
robocat 7y ago
> Also, the opportunity cost of sitting around with a broken hip waiting to be seen This example is bad. New Zealander here: a broken hip will be fixed in reasonable time, and I think if you have private insurance it likely would be diagnosed, fixed, and recuperated in the same hospital. Private insurance does help if you need a hip replacement. On public, you will wait for a long time, and you will be in pain for a long time. Private is much more proactive at replacing a hip early. However hip replacement is that common that I strongly suspect you would be financially better off paying for it when you need it (whether poor or rich). If you are from the US, you should take care before projecting any experience you have of hospitals upon other first world countries. I think your system is so severely broken you cannot reasonably model anything about a foreign system.
- aianus 7y ago
  I live in Canada and my experiences are with the Canadian health care system in Ontario. Edit: I have friends that live in the US and work in tech and enjoy better care. Like I said, the Canadian system is much better if you're poor but the US system is better for tech-worker income and above. This is why it sticks around: powerful people and voters in the US are likely to be old or rich-enough and enjoy good care.
JohnTHaller 7y ago
From most of the folks I talk to here and abroad, waiting times for the things you're thinking of are longer in the US. I just spent 3 months waiting to see an ankle surgeon here in NYC and it cost over $1,500 to have x-rays in the office and be told I'm a bad candidate for surgery. A friend had to spend the better part of a month waiting for a mammogram and ultrasound to diagnose breast cancer. Someone in the dorm next to me in college died of an asthma attack because he couldn't afford the ambulance and took a cab. The system is still the way it is in the US because of money.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Negitivefrags 7y ago
If you are the sort of person that can afford good health insurance in the US, then you are also the sort of person that can afford to go private for certain things in a country that has a good public system. The existence of a public system keeps the prices for the private system in line. They can't get too ridiculous because there is always the free option available. In NZ, I have found that diagnostic on the public system to be plenty fast enough. Then when it comes to treatment option you can weigh a quote of getting it done privately immediately vs waiting for a specified amount of time. And due to the public system I wouldn't even think twice about going to the doctor as soon as I have any kind of issue at all.

by aianus 7y ago

velcrovan 7y ago

Funny, I have a sister in Canada and a sister in Switzerland, neither of them have had trouble getting ultrasounds. My wife's grandmother is also in Canada and was treated the same day for her broken hip. I'm really sick of being told things are impossible in the US that are normal in other developed countries.

aianus 7y ago
I live in Canada and have waited 4 months for a specialist at great personal cost (but not financial cost). I have also seen my mother suffer for 6 months on a surgery wait list and then recover slowly and painfully in a room with 4 other people who were constantly screaming during the night. And she was a lucky one because the hospital was so overcrowded that other patients were living, sleeping, and recovering in the literal hallway. Google "hallway medicine Ontario" to see I'm not making this up. It's not a perfect system by any stretch and it's much better than nothing but I bet upper-middle-class and above citizens in the USA enjoy better care.
- johnpowell 7y ago
  I live in the United States and in June of last year I was told to make a appointment with a ear, nose, and throat doctor. So I called and was told the earliest they could see me was in October. I started chemo before my original appointment with that doctor. (Yes, it was mouth and neck cancer)
seanmcdirmid 7y ago
Interesting to note that Switzerland has a system of mandatory health insurance that Obama care was partially based on.

robocat 7y ago

> Also, the opportunity cost of sitting around with a broken hip waiting to be seen This example is bad. New Zealander here: a broken hip will be fixed in reasonable time, and I think if you have private insurance it likely would be diagnosed, fixed, and recuperated in the same hospital. Private insurance does help if you need a hip replacement. On public, you will wait for a long time, and you will be in pain for a long time. Private is much more proactive at replacing a hip early. However hip replacement is that common that I strongly suspect you would be financially better off paying for it when you need it (whether poor or rich). If you are from the US, you should take care before projecting any experience you have of hospitals upon other first world countries. I think your system is so severely broken you cannot reasonably model anything about a foreign system.

aianus 7y ago
I live in Canada and my experiences are with the Canadian health care system in Ontario. Edit: I have friends that live in the US and work in tech and enjoy better care. Like I said, the Canadian system is much better if you're poor but the US system is better for tech-worker income and above. This is why it sticks around: powerful people and voters in the US are likely to be old or rich-enough and enjoy good care.

JohnTHaller 7y ago

From most of the folks I talk to here and abroad, waiting times for the things you're thinking of are longer in the US. I just spent 3 months waiting to see an ankle surgeon here in NYC and it cost over $1,500 to have x-rays in the office and be told I'm a bad candidate for surgery. A friend had to spend the better part of a month waiting for a mammogram and ultrasound to diagnose breast cancer. Someone in the dorm next to me in college died of an asthma attack because he couldn't afford the ambulance and took a cab. The system is still the way it is in the US because of money.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

Negitivefrags 7y ago

If you are the sort of person that can afford good health insurance in the US, then you are also the sort of person that can afford to go private for certain things in a country that has a good public system. The existence of a public system keeps the prices for the private system in line. They can't get too ridiculous because there is always the free option available. In NZ, I have found that diagnostic on the public system to be plenty fast enough. Then when it comes to treatment option you can weigh a quote of getting it done privately immediately vs waiting for a specified amount of time. And due to the public system I wouldn't even think twice about going to the doctor as soon as I have any kind of issue at all.