Hah. If it'd be only about the costs - I have a good insurance and decent income, but but I find the overall system very confusing. Five years and I can't say I

Hah. If it'd be only about the costs - I have a good insurance and decent income, but but I find the overall system very confusing. Five years and I can't say I've figured out how to use it. Dentists and ophthalmologists - super easy. I pick a place I like (based on location and reviews), I fill a form online (or give them a call if this doesn't work), I tell what I need or want, I make a visit and get full information on what should I do next. Simple as anywhere else in the world. But the other medical stuff is confusing to me, or makes me have reservations about it. - The majority of places seem to be affiliated with religious megacorps - they just bought out nearly every other hospital in my area. I'm not a woman, but I'm no fond of contributing to companies who then lobby for medical restrictions based on their religious beliefs. - Then, there's also a lot of alternative medicine, way more than in any other country I've seen. Holistic, osteopathic, chiropractic, you name it. Yes, I've read that DO in the US isn't exactly a quack who's gonna suggest a manipulation that has a chance of getting a person quadriplegic, but a cheaper way to get a medical degree than an MD (and the osteopathic junk tends to just gets thrown out of the window after graduating), but still - weird. Just something that scratches at the back of my mind. - Finding a GP is something I still haven't figured out in five years. They always seem to have appointment times in no less than half a year (!) so I'm really not sure how to find one I would like. And I'm still not sure what they do exactly, because I can go to the specialized doctor (like a dermatologist or otolaryngologist) directly anyway - and somehow it's a matter of weeks, not months. I've had a GP which I visited exactly once - should've went for urgent care, but I wasn't aware that's what I needed - then they stopped working at that hospital and I haven't explicitly asked for a new one so the whole relationship just lapsed somehow. In other countries, I went to GPs either for a quick dispatch to a specialist (next-day appointment for "hey doc, I've got $symptoms, can you send me off to $specialist and/or $lab") or for managing (simplifying) routine checkups (them organizing it instead of me running on my own to different labs and specialists). I should figure out the routine stuff, but still haven't - must be that the whole system operates on some unspoken rules, and I'm just unaware about it because I grew up elsewhere. At least the urgent care works in a way I understand.