2 ms·

When you say they don't have any issues, do you mean it doesn't happen? I'm more familiar with the Spanish, Irish and UK systems. I tried to find a nice docume

by Y_Y 5y ago

When you say they don't have any issues, do you mean it doesn't happen? I'm more familiar with the Spanish, Irish and UK systems. I tried to find a nice document giving numbers for what I was describing, but most of what I can find is anecdotal, and the official reports are weren't quantitative. Here's an article from an Irish newspaper last year that gives a rough guess (though of course there are other factors): https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/are-patient-waiting-lists-shrinking-for-the-right-reasons-1.4147197 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/are-patient-waiting-l... I'm certainly open to US insurance companies paying me to shill on hn against Canadian healthcare, but right now I'm only saying these things out of the goodness of my heart.

hef19898 5y ago
Waiting times do happen, usually end of quarters when the quarterly budget runs out. No issues in so far as these waiting times don't affect emergency procedures. And no, I don't see a direct link between public health care and wait times. The German issues are mostly caused by a bloated bureaucracy.
- Y_Y 5y ago
  I think we're pretty much in agreement then. Emergency procedures don't have long waiting times in any of these nice European countries. (Of course, even in the US they will give some urgent life-saving care to someone who can't pay.) I also think that these (some several year) wait times aren't unavoidable. Management of these national public health systems is fabulously complicated and difficult and expensive, but it could certainly be done much better. In the end I think a country that really wanted to, and was willing to pay, could have a public system at least as good as what a 1%er in the US gets.
  - hef19898 5y ago
    Absolutely in agreement. IMHO in Germany the main reason is budget, defined quarterly. So of course a Doctor might push out appointments to the next quarter if he can when he ran out of budget already. And the ratio by which doctors practices are assigned and planned. That leads to an abundance in cities and a shortage elsewhere. And that imbalances cam, and do, drive wait times up. Going from experience so, it got better. Theoretically I could switch to Germany's private insurance scheme. I have no willingness to do so.

by Y_Y 5y ago

hef19898 5y ago

Waiting times do happen, usually end of quarters when the quarterly budget runs out. No issues in so far as these waiting times don't affect emergency procedures. And no, I don't see a direct link between public health care and wait times. The German issues are mostly caused by a bloated bureaucracy.

Y_Y 5y ago
I think we're pretty much in agreement then. Emergency procedures don't have long waiting times in any of these nice European countries. (Of course, even in the US they will give some urgent life-saving care to someone who can't pay.) I also think that these (some several year) wait times aren't unavoidable. Management of these national public health systems is fabulously complicated and difficult and expensive, but it could certainly be done much better. In the end I think a country that really wanted to, and was willing to pay, could have a public system at least as good as what a 1%er in the US gets.
- hef19898 5y ago
  Absolutely in agreement. IMHO in Germany the main reason is budget, defined quarterly. So of course a Doctor might push out appointments to the next quarter if he can when he ran out of budget already. And the ratio by which doctors practices are assigned and planned. That leads to an abundance in cities and a shortage elsewhere. And that imbalances cam, and do, drive wait times up. Going from experience so, it got better. Theoretically I could switch to Germany's private insurance scheme. I have no willingness to do so.