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Every other developed country is not way better than the US at healthcare. Cost in the US are high but there is also quality and availability, which the US rank

Every other developed country is not way better than the US at healthcare. Cost in the US are high but there is also quality and availability, which the US ranks very high in. Just as an anecdote, I had to go to an ENT in the US. I was discouraged that it took 12 days. Meanwhile I learned that a friend in the UK had to wait 4 months. Imagine being in pain and misery for weeks with no solution and being told you have to wait 4 months before someone can evaluate you. I'll take 12 days and a $40 copays 10/10 times.

elil17 4y ago
Healthcare wait times vary a lot country to country: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/health-care-wait-times-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/health-ca... 27% of cases take one month or longer to get to a specialist in the US. Compare that to 61% Norway and Canada and 0% in Spain and Chile, all of which are single payer systems. That figure is at 25% in Germany and The Netherlands, which are both mandatory multi-payer systems (a mix of private and public insurance with much stricter limits on out of pocket costs compared to the US). It's not obvious that single payer systems lead to universally better or worse wait times.
- Throwawayaerlei 4y ago
  A very great deal depends on urgency. Here in the US when it was erroneously through I might have cancer I was in the specialist's office in less then 24 hours. Granted, that was a "Oh, we're not going to be too busy tomorrow morning, come in and we'll make room for you" partial special case. Other times I've waited a lot longer for a specialist's appointment, but those absolutely weren't high urgency situations.
  - elil17 4y ago
    I was in exactly the same situation last week. A risk of a serious illness was identified and all of a sudden the red carpet was rolled out - next day appointments for procedures that typically take at least weeks to get scheduled. Now that they've ruled out everything really nasty (thank goodness) it's back to waiting a week for my doctor to reply to my messages.
zanderwohl 4y ago
You're falling for the availability heuristic. I work at a healthcare software company that specializes in finding people services (a.k.a. referrals), and the wait times for our "have-nots" are much longer than four months. There are so many events and disabilities in America that can lead to you just never getting care at all. Most of our population is under-served. Now, the UK is especially bad but their system is receiving a national gutting at the moment.

elil17 4y ago

Healthcare wait times vary a lot country to country: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/health-care-wait-times-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/health-ca... 27% of cases take one month or longer to get to a specialist in the US. Compare that to 61% Norway and Canada and 0% in Spain and Chile, all of which are single payer systems. That figure is at 25% in Germany and The Netherlands, which are both mandatory multi-payer systems (a mix of private and public insurance with much stricter limits on out of pocket costs compared to the US). It's not obvious that single payer systems lead to universally better or worse wait times.

Throwawayaerlei 4y ago
A very great deal depends on urgency. Here in the US when it was erroneously through I might have cancer I was in the specialist's office in less then 24 hours. Granted, that was a "Oh, we're not going to be too busy tomorrow morning, come in and we'll make room for you" partial special case. Other times I've waited a lot longer for a specialist's appointment, but those absolutely weren't high urgency situations.
- elil17 4y ago
  I was in exactly the same situation last week. A risk of a serious illness was identified and all of a sudden the red carpet was rolled out - next day appointments for procedures that typically take at least weeks to get scheduled. Now that they've ruled out everything really nasty (thank goodness) it's back to waiting a week for my doctor to reply to my messages.

zanderwohl 4y ago

You're falling for the availability heuristic. I work at a healthcare software company that specializes in finding people services (a.k.a. referrals), and the wait times for our "have-nots" are much longer than four months. There are so many events and disabilities in America that can lead to you just never getting care at all. Most of our population is under-served. Now, the UK is especially bad but their system is receiving a national gutting at the moment.