5 ms·

I’m fully insured and have always been well taken care of in the United States health care system. Never wait more than 30 minutes if I were in an emergency roo

by xwdv 4y ago

I’m fully insured and have always been well taken care of in the United States health care system. Never wait more than 30 minutes if I were in an emergency room, and usually I’m attended to within 10-15. Doctors appointments are easy to get, never paid much for prescriptions. If I was in a public system, I’d fear I’d be fighting for attention alongside the general public, so I’m not convinced it would be better.

stemlord 4y ago
I'm fully insured and healthy but still just paid almost $3000 in deductubles for a single upper endoscopy (common procedure for 40+ folks). Cigna. In Italy last summer I received a dental xray and diagnosis as a walk-in, for FREE.
- eecc 4y ago
  Just adding that in Lombardy, the region around Milan who have a bad case of parochial wanna-be NYC, local (right wing) government is pushing towards private health care with lavish subsidies for privates and a grossly underfunded public health system. To get an MRI via public you can wait 1k days, invia private is a next-day appointment although you must be ready to pay thousands EUR. frankly it’s obviously deliberate
  - stemlord 4y ago
    That's disappointing to hear. My experience was in Brescia. I'm from NYC so I can say that if they're charging thousands of euro for a scan they're right on the money.
  - nathan_compton 4y ago
    People should be out in the streets.
dwater 4y ago
How old are you and what are your insurance premiums and deductibles? Generally the US healthcare system works better the more money you have and the less risk you have.
JeremyBanks 4y ago
[dead]
zamadatix 4y ago
Only ~8% of people are uninsured so I wouldn't be so quick to distance yourself from being "the general public". Besides, you don't need insurance to be stabilized in an ER that only comes into play after (or if you enter with a non-emergency). 30 minutes is pretty good though, especially if it's the latter type of visit, it'd be about 3x better than the best state average https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/rankings-and-ratings/er-wait-times-by-state.html https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/rankings-and-ratings/e.... Specific location and severity have more to do with ER wait times than your insurance. Travel can often be a "spin the wheel" type situation. I'm lucky to have short wait times near where I live but on some work trips I haven't been so lucky.
- WarOnPrivacy 4y ago
  Regarding the CPS ASEC ~8% number, census.gov seems to track insured Americans similar to how the FCC tracks broadband availability[1]. This ~92% insured in 2020 includes: - People subscribed to unusable ACA and private plans (eg: $9100 deductibles) - People considered eligible for Medicaid by CMCS, including those who are denied coverage by state administration agencies - Millions of people who were directly granted temporary Covid Medicaid coverage by CMCS (bypassing state agencies) - which expires in days [1] FCC broadband maps consider an entire census tract served, as long as an ISP alleges just one house there can be served.
arrosenberg 4y ago
I find it hard to believe you have never waited more than 30 minutes in an emergency room. I can't ever remember waiting less and I've always had pretty good insurance.
- Scoundreller 4y ago
  ERs, even in US, will triage patients by need, not quality/quantity of insurance. If they're seeing insured ankle sprains before uninsured strokes/heart attacks, they're going to get sued to dust.
yowzadave 4y ago
> I’d fear I’d be fighting for attention alongside the general public Are you not a part of the "general public"? If it is true that there is a class of people who don't have your advantages and therefore have worse medical care, is that a situation that you see as acceptable? It always seems strange to me when people argue this about this issue from a hypothetical perspective, when we have a wealth of actual data that we can use to compare health outcomes. We can just look at the results and see what works better! https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2022/07/how-does-the-us-healthcare-system-compare-to-other-countries https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2022/07/how-does-the-us-healthcare... (TLDR: the US spends much more per capita on healthcare, especially in administrative costs, and has worse health outcomes than most wealthy countries).
- fnimick 4y ago
  > If it is true that there is a class of people who don't have your advantages and therefore have worse medical care, is that a situation that you see as acceptable? The answer is obviously yes, given that they don't want the "general public" to have the same level of access and make them potentially have to endure any longer waits. Their convenience is more important than the health of others.
  - kevviiinn 4y ago
    People love feeling like they're better than someone else, that's an ideal that's been floating around the US for quite some time. Ingroup outgroup stuff, great way for capital owners to keep the workers fighting amongst themselves and keep the attention where they want it
- earthling8118 4y ago
  To me this is similar to being "stuck in traffic" as if it is something that you are experiencing. No, you ARE the traffic. The congestion didn't come to ruin your day. You contributed to it too.
KyleJune 4y ago
Where is the wait only 30 minutes? Every time I've been to the emergency room the wait has been 6+ hours. I think the only way it would be that fast at the hospitals I've been to is if you'd die waiting longer, otherwise it's a long wait.
- glenstein 4y ago
  I am also fully insured and I have never once heard of emergency rooms with an average wait time of 30 minutes in the United States.
  - oogali 4y ago
    I've waited hours in NYC. I've waited less than an hour in New Jersey and Connecticut. When I still lived in NYC, I resolved that if I needed a hospital but I wasn't in extremely bad shape, I would drive an hour into an adjacent state's ER rather than wait in NYC.
    - nobodyandproud 4y ago
      Call 911 and get an ambulance.
      - kevviiinn 4y ago
        That's a good way to spend $6000
        oogali 4y ago
        It's about $500-1,000. Coming in via an ambulance doesn't trigger some sort of re-prioritzation, if you're not suffering from something that is immediately life threatening. In most NYC hospitals, you will end up in a secondary waiting area that lies just beyond the regular ER doors. Good luck if it's a Saturday night.
  - cmiles74 4y ago
    ProPublica has a tool that will provide the average wait time for hospitals in your area. https://projects.propublica.org/emergency/ https://projects.propublica.org/emergency/ Where I live, all in driving distance have an average wait time more than 2.5 hours.
Timon3 4y ago
Don't you think it's a worthy goal to strive for this for all people in your country? Would you really try to block progress towards that goal due to your fear of being treated as they are right now, instead of putting your energy towards nobody being treated that way? Sincerely, if anyone can explain to me - how can we as a species both have figured out game theory, AND consider this as a position that is in any way acceptable?
- fnimick 4y ago
  Game theory explains it perfectly. The current situation is that the parent poster has preferential healthcare access, and other people that they do not care about do not. The alternative is equal treatment which might mean the same access, or worse access as they are forced to "fight for attention alongside the general public" as they so blithely put it. Given the option between the status quo, or a change which can only ever be the same or worse for you personally (regardless of the broader impact), of course someone self-centered would choose the former.
- Amezarak 4y ago
  The best insurance I've seen in the US is Medicaid. It's people in the middle who are getting squeezed by HDHPs, mostly not the poor, who have access to Medicaid (exact qualifications vary by state) or Medicare (everyone 65+).
specialist 4y ago
Your experience (in the USA) is not the norm. Especially since COVID-19.
nathan_compton 4y ago
I'm fully insured and have a kid and have been to the emergency room quite a few times and most of the time its been a few hours. Contrast this with Europe, where I could get a doctor to make a house call at 3am for a reasonable fee.
illiarian 4y ago
> If I was in a public system, I’d fear I’d be fighting for attention alongside the general public Ah yes, how dare the plebs interfere with the path of the chosen ones.
avgDev 4y ago
I have been to an ER in a top US hospital. Waited 6 hours. This anecdotal evidence is garbage.
CogitoCogito 4y ago
> If I was in a public system, I’d fear I’d be fighting for attention alongside the general public, so I’m not convinced it would be better. Are you basing this fear on any sort of facts or are you just afraid out of ignorance?
cmiles74 4y ago
I am fully insured in the United States. An appointment with my primary for something urgent is typically a week out, if I can't wait a week I am advised to go to an emergency room. An appointment with a specialist, if I can get one, is typically six months out. An average emergency room visit is typically a three hour wait to be triaged, additional multiple hours to talk to someone about my condition. I live in Massachusetts. I would take a public system over what we have now, no questions asked.

by xwdv 4y ago

stemlord 4y ago

I'm fully insured and healthy but still just paid almost $3000 in deductubles for a single upper endoscopy (common procedure for 40+ folks). Cigna. In Italy last summer I received a dental xray and diagnosis as a walk-in, for FREE.

eecc 4y ago
Just adding that in Lombardy, the region around Milan who have a bad case of parochial wanna-be NYC, local (right wing) government is pushing towards private health care with lavish subsidies for privates and a grossly underfunded public health system. To get an MRI via public you can wait 1k days, invia private is a next-day appointment although you must be ready to pay thousands EUR. frankly it’s obviously deliberate
- stemlord 4y ago
  That's disappointing to hear. My experience was in Brescia. I'm from NYC so I can say that if they're charging thousands of euro for a scan they're right on the money.
- nathan_compton 4y ago
  People should be out in the streets.

dwater 4y ago

How old are you and what are your insurance premiums and deductibles? Generally the US healthcare system works better the more money you have and the less risk you have.

JeremyBanks 4y ago

[dead]

zamadatix 4y ago

Only ~8% of people are uninsured so I wouldn't be so quick to distance yourself from being "the general public". Besides, you don't need insurance to be stabilized in an ER that only comes into play after (or if you enter with a non-emergency). 30 minutes is pretty good though, especially if it's the latter type of visit, it'd be about 3x better than the best state average https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/rankings-and-ratings/er-wait-times-by-state.html https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/rankings-and-ratings/e.... Specific location and severity have more to do with ER wait times than your insurance. Travel can often be a "spin the wheel" type situation. I'm lucky to have short wait times near where I live but on some work trips I haven't been so lucky.

WarOnPrivacy 4y ago
Regarding the CPS ASEC ~8% number, census.gov seems to track insured Americans similar to how the FCC tracks broadband availability[1]. This ~92% insured in 2020 includes: - People subscribed to unusable ACA and private plans (eg: $9100 deductibles) - People considered eligible for Medicaid by CMCS, including those who are denied coverage by state administration agencies - Millions of people who were directly granted temporary Covid Medicaid coverage by CMCS (bypassing state agencies) - which expires in days [1] FCC broadband maps consider an entire census tract served, as long as an ISP alleges just one house there can be served.

arrosenberg 4y ago

I find it hard to believe you have never waited more than 30 minutes in an emergency room. I can't ever remember waiting less and I've always had pretty good insurance.

Scoundreller 4y ago
ERs, even in US, will triage patients by need, not quality/quantity of insurance. If they're seeing insured ankle sprains before uninsured strokes/heart attacks, they're going to get sued to dust.

yowzadave 4y ago

> I’d fear I’d be fighting for attention alongside the general public Are you not a part of the "general public"? If it is true that there is a class of people who don't have your advantages and therefore have worse medical care, is that a situation that you see as acceptable? It always seems strange to me when people argue this about this issue from a hypothetical perspective, when we have a wealth of actual data that we can use to compare health outcomes. We can just look at the results and see what works better! https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2022/07/how-does-the-us-healthcare-system-compare-to-other-countries https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2022/07/how-does-the-us-healthcare... (TLDR: the US spends much more per capita on healthcare, especially in administrative costs, and has worse health outcomes than most wealthy countries).

fnimick 4y ago
> If it is true that there is a class of people who don't have your advantages and therefore have worse medical care, is that a situation that you see as acceptable? The answer is obviously yes, given that they don't want the "general public" to have the same level of access and make them potentially have to endure any longer waits. Their convenience is more important than the health of others.
- kevviiinn 4y ago
  People love feeling like they're better than someone else, that's an ideal that's been floating around the US for quite some time. Ingroup outgroup stuff, great way for capital owners to keep the workers fighting amongst themselves and keep the attention where they want it
earthling8118 4y ago
To me this is similar to being "stuck in traffic" as if it is something that you are experiencing. No, you ARE the traffic. The congestion didn't come to ruin your day. You contributed to it too.

KyleJune 4y ago

Where is the wait only 30 minutes? Every time I've been to the emergency room the wait has been 6+ hours. I think the only way it would be that fast at the hospitals I've been to is if you'd die waiting longer, otherwise it's a long wait.

glenstein 4y ago
I am also fully insured and I have never once heard of emergency rooms with an average wait time of 30 minutes in the United States.
- oogali 4y ago
  I've waited hours in NYC. I've waited less than an hour in New Jersey and Connecticut. When I still lived in NYC, I resolved that if I needed a hospital but I wasn't in extremely bad shape, I would drive an hour into an adjacent state's ER rather than wait in NYC.
  - nobodyandproud 4y ago
    Call 911 and get an ambulance.
    - kevviiinn 4y ago
      That's a good way to spend $6000
      - oogali 4y ago
        It's about $500-1,000. Coming in via an ambulance doesn't trigger some sort of re-prioritzation, if you're not suffering from something that is immediately life threatening. In most NYC hospitals, you will end up in a secondary waiting area that lies just beyond the regular ER doors. Good luck if it's a Saturday night.
- cmiles74 4y ago
  ProPublica has a tool that will provide the average wait time for hospitals in your area. https://projects.propublica.org/emergency/ https://projects.propublica.org/emergency/ Where I live, all in driving distance have an average wait time more than 2.5 hours.

Timon3 4y ago

Don't you think it's a worthy goal to strive for this for all people in your country? Would you really try to block progress towards that goal due to your fear of being treated as they are right now, instead of putting your energy towards nobody being treated that way? Sincerely, if anyone can explain to me - how can we as a species both have figured out game theory, AND consider this as a position that is in any way acceptable?

fnimick 4y ago
Game theory explains it perfectly. The current situation is that the parent poster has preferential healthcare access, and other people that they do not care about do not. The alternative is equal treatment which might mean the same access, or worse access as they are forced to "fight for attention alongside the general public" as they so blithely put it. Given the option between the status quo, or a change which can only ever be the same or worse for you personally (regardless of the broader impact), of course someone self-centered would choose the former.
Amezarak 4y ago
The best insurance I've seen in the US is Medicaid. It's people in the middle who are getting squeezed by HDHPs, mostly not the poor, who have access to Medicaid (exact qualifications vary by state) or Medicare (everyone 65+).

specialist 4y ago

Your experience (in the USA) is not the norm. Especially since COVID-19.

nathan_compton 4y ago

I'm fully insured and have a kid and have been to the emergency room quite a few times and most of the time its been a few hours. Contrast this with Europe, where I could get a doctor to make a house call at 3am for a reasonable fee.

illiarian 4y ago

> If I was in a public system, I’d fear I’d be fighting for attention alongside the general public Ah yes, how dare the plebs interfere with the path of the chosen ones.

avgDev 4y ago

I have been to an ER in a top US hospital. Waited 6 hours. This anecdotal evidence is garbage.

CogitoCogito 4y ago

> If I was in a public system, I’d fear I’d be fighting for attention alongside the general public, so I’m not convinced it would be better. Are you basing this fear on any sort of facts or are you just afraid out of ignorance?

cmiles74 4y ago

I am fully insured in the United States. An appointment with my primary for something urgent is typically a week out, if I can't wait a week I am advised to go to an emergency room. An appointment with a specialist, if I can get one, is typically six months out. An average emergency room visit is typically a three hour wait to be triaged, additional multiple hours to talk to someone about my condition. I live in Massachusetts. I would take a public system over what we have now, no questions asked.