6 ms·

Lately I can’t even get a doctor - both the specialist and primary care doctors are booked months in advance. And I have one of the best insurance coverages cur

by ein0p 2y ago

Lately I can’t even get a doctor - both the specialist and primary care doctors are booked months in advance. And I have one of the best insurance coverages currently available. Remember how we laughed at Canadians and Brits waiting for months to see their free/cheap doctors? Well we’re at a point where we have to wait _and_ pay through the nose. And then they can’t really do anything or fuck you up even worse.

Simon_ORourke 2y ago
Same here - and I'm always left wondering what manner of trivial/cosmetic cases are taking up these bookings and leaving more urgent medical cases to wait.
usr1106 2y ago
You forgot to mention what country you are talking about. That seems to be American. Difficulties to get an appointment is also common in at least some areas of the EU countries I am familiar with.
- ein0p 2y ago
  United States.
- suslik 2y ago
  Indeed. My girlfriend is waiting for ADHD appointment in Sweden - 2 years and counting.
vidarh 2y ago
Not that I'm trying to make you feel worse about it: In the UK we pay less per capita in taxes toward healthcare than you do in the US (or at least did last I added up the numbers - Medicare and Medicaid alone added up to a higher per capita cost than the NHS), and if we do want private health insurance, which here is basically "queue skip insurance", it costs a fraction of in the US because they only need to provide the "extras" - you'll normally try your NHS GP first, call your insurer if you can't get an appointment, or ask them to refer you privately for things there are queues to get done on the NHS. For a lot of elective procedures, the price is even low enough that it'd pay you to fly to the UK and stay in a hotel to get things done here if the recovery isn't too long.
- simonbarker87 2y ago
  > For a lot of elective procedures, the price is even low enough that it'd pay you to fly to the UK and stay in a hotel to get things done here if the recovery isn't too long. But please don’t do this. Our system is better than the US but private is now starting to struggle along with the NHS wait times as more people use their private coverage where they wouldn’t have done before.
  - Trhoe3849 2y ago
    Flying to UK for cheap healthcare is a sick joke. There are much better countries for medical tourism: Thailand, Malaysia, Greece...
    - vidarh 2y ago
      If you want it as cheap as possible, sure. The point was not that it's the cheapest option but that even a high cost country like the UK is still cheap enough to be viable destination. But the UK does attract a significant amount of medical tourism, and has hospitals specifically targeting an international clientele who clearly considers it a good balance of cost and quality.
- ein0p 2y ago
  The US is so corrupt that I’m afraid any attempt at universal healthcare would make it even more expensive. Obamacare was basically a trillion dollar giveaway to Big Pharma and Big Healthcare. The only positive thing I can see in it for me personally is that it became possible to buy (extremely expensive) healthcare privately rather than through an employer, and you could not be denied due to pre-existing condition. Don’t get me wrong, that’s significant, but the insurance is now three times the price it was before Obamacare and the actual care is much worse. And both the cost and quality/availability seem to be trending in the wrong direction. I guess what I wanted to say is, lucky you. Hold onto that NHS for dear life and resist any attempt to privatize it. It’s very much a one way street.
  - netsharc 2y ago
fire_lake 2y ago
The UK isn’t functioning well at the moment. Cancer treatments keep getting delayed and people are dying as a a result, to give one example. I don’t know which countries are doing a good job on health, but it’s not the UK.
inferiorhuman 2y ago
To be clear that's been true in the United States for the better part of two decades.
DavidPeiffer 2y ago
There are a ton of benefits to having continuity of care, but also access to care. Do any out-of-network providers have appointments available? If so, and you can't find one in-network, you may be able to get an out-of-network provider covered as in-network due to an inadequate network. I've heard of people calling their insurance company and keeping them on the line while they call a handful of offices and get turned down for appointments to get this approved.
gregjor 2y ago
Same. Forced to get insurance through state exchange, premiums over $1,000/mo for two people. Very hard to find a doctor that accepted the insurance. And that was in a major US city. Every test and procedure requires a referral to a specialist, and the game of “do you take this insurance?” repeats. Then you get referred to diagnostic labs with long wait times (sometimes months) and they want payment up front and may not accept your insurance. That process seems worse in every respect compared to my experience in SE Asia, and the US does not have better outcomes to justify the much higher costs.

by ein0p 2y ago

Simon_ORourke 2y ago

Same here - and I'm always left wondering what manner of trivial/cosmetic cases are taking up these bookings and leaving more urgent medical cases to wait.

usr1106 2y ago

You forgot to mention what country you are talking about. That seems to be American. Difficulties to get an appointment is also common in at least some areas of the EU countries I am familiar with.

ein0p 2y ago
United States.
suslik 2y ago
Indeed. My girlfriend is waiting for ADHD appointment in Sweden - 2 years and counting.

vidarh 2y ago

Not that I'm trying to make you feel worse about it: In the UK we pay less per capita in taxes toward healthcare than you do in the US (or at least did last I added up the numbers - Medicare and Medicaid alone added up to a higher per capita cost than the NHS), and if we do want private health insurance, which here is basically "queue skip insurance", it costs a fraction of in the US because they only need to provide the "extras" - you'll normally try your NHS GP first, call your insurer if you can't get an appointment, or ask them to refer you privately for things there are queues to get done on the NHS. For a lot of elective procedures, the price is even low enough that it'd pay you to fly to the UK and stay in a hotel to get things done here if the recovery isn't too long.

simonbarker87 2y ago
> For a lot of elective procedures, the price is even low enough that it'd pay you to fly to the UK and stay in a hotel to get things done here if the recovery isn't too long. But please don’t do this. Our system is better than the US but private is now starting to struggle along with the NHS wait times as more people use their private coverage where they wouldn’t have done before.
- Trhoe3849 2y ago
  Flying to UK for cheap healthcare is a sick joke. There are much better countries for medical tourism: Thailand, Malaysia, Greece...
  - vidarh 2y ago
    If you want it as cheap as possible, sure. The point was not that it's the cheapest option but that even a high cost country like the UK is still cheap enough to be viable destination. But the UK does attract a significant amount of medical tourism, and has hospitals specifically targeting an international clientele who clearly considers it a good balance of cost and quality.
ein0p 2y ago
The US is so corrupt that I’m afraid any attempt at universal healthcare would make it even more expensive. Obamacare was basically a trillion dollar giveaway to Big Pharma and Big Healthcare. The only positive thing I can see in it for me personally is that it became possible to buy (extremely expensive) healthcare privately rather than through an employer, and you could not be denied due to pre-existing condition. Don’t get me wrong, that’s significant, but the insurance is now three times the price it was before Obamacare and the actual care is much worse. And both the cost and quality/availability seem to be trending in the wrong direction. I guess what I wanted to say is, lucky you. Hold onto that NHS for dear life and resist any attempt to privatize it. It’s very much a one way street.
- netsharc 2y ago

fire_lake 2y ago

The UK isn’t functioning well at the moment. Cancer treatments keep getting delayed and people are dying as a a result, to give one example. I don’t know which countries are doing a good job on health, but it’s not the UK.

inferiorhuman 2y ago

To be clear that's been true in the United States for the better part of two decades.

DavidPeiffer 2y ago

There are a ton of benefits to having continuity of care, but also access to care. Do any out-of-network providers have appointments available? If so, and you can't find one in-network, you may be able to get an out-of-network provider covered as in-network due to an inadequate network. I've heard of people calling their insurance company and keeping them on the line while they call a handful of offices and get turned down for appointments to get this approved.

gregjor 2y ago

Same. Forced to get insurance through state exchange, premiums over $1,000/mo for two people. Very hard to find a doctor that accepted the insurance. And that was in a major US city. Every test and procedure requires a referral to a specialist, and the game of “do you take this insurance?” repeats. Then you get referred to diagnostic labs with long wait times (sometimes months) and they want payment up front and may not accept your insurance. That process seems worse in every respect compared to my experience in SE Asia, and the US does not have better outcomes to justify the much higher costs.