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> Because even here in the US if you aren't fabulously wealthy with concierge medical you'll be waiting weeks/months to see a 'doctor'. And you'll almost certai

> Because even here in the US if you aren't fabulously wealthy with concierge medical you'll be waiting weeks/months to see a 'doctor'. And you'll almost certainly never actually see a doctor, you're going to see an overworked NP (no shade on NPs here, most of whom are great, just establishing how our medical system actually works in 2026). But it's simply not true. my mom broke her back last year and before we realized that her back was broken, we saw an urgent care doctor, same day, within 30mins (I don't recall the exact timescale now, but it was pretty much instant). Who promptly gave my mom an Rx and told us to go to the ER. Personally, urgent care appointments have always been available within 2hrs, and even stuff like an xray (usually in a centralized office, so some travel required) is possible same day. This isn't special treatment. If someone is waiting long for care, it isn't a problem with the system - and the alternative you speak of isn't going to solve the "I'm not a medical doctor" problem either, which is the main objection to the long wait-times. Minor hypochondriac-ness notwithstanding - nothing will be able to solve that completely - money is the back-pressure mechanism to avoid waste of limited resources. Whether anybody likes it or not, doctors/xray-machines/etc are not infinite (for now heh). For-profit health-care insurance companies should burn in hell, though.

stephenhuey 5d ago
Urgent care would not be urgent if you had to wait months. Hang out with a few elderly people who actually need to see specialists more than people like me. Over the years, I've heard plenty of stories from people I know waiting multiple months to see specialists.
- diamondlovesyou 5d ago
  Yeah, and specialists are "usually" not available via urgent care. If not for the like of urgent care, specialties would be worse. The fact that it takes so long for such access is still a demand and supply problem at the end of the day, no way around the knowledge bottleneck - fixing that means shifting demand to different, more plentiful, supply (doing that soundly is not trivial, but likely easier than attempting to multiply the specialists, depending on the specialist). ERs are expensive because they have to have certain specialties "on tap" 24/7, among other reasons. This is not a unique problem of any single health-care system.
AngryData 5d ago
I can do anecdotes too. My father had his heart in afib for over 3 months straight as US hospitals and doctors jerked him around and set appointments weeks out before they finally removed his thyroid, despite a family history of thyroid problems and having multiple previous hospital trips for suspected heart attacks, which by itself should give the obvious conclusion that his thyroid needed to be removed. Being in afib just for a few days can cause permanent heart damage, heart attack, and death. And even once they decided it should be done, it was another 2.5 weeks before they scheduled the surgery. I don't see how anyone can think the US medical system is any good for anybody but the obscenely wealthy. No doctor in existence would consider that an acceptable scenario, but the profit driven investors seemingly had no problem with him dieing when they had more profitable patients to serve first.
Spooky23 5d ago
30 years ago, you’d just call your GPs office and they would have told you to go to the ER. Instead your moms insurer paid $150 for an interaction that likely funneled you their medical networks local hospital and added low value. Urgent care is a grift to replace a relationship with a doctor or practice with a lower paid, lower skilled NP. It’s more a sales funnel that anything.
- ChickeNES 5d ago
  > relationship with a doctor or practice What if I don't care about this whatsoever?
  - Spooky23 5d ago
    Go to a doc in the box and be happy.
lovich 5d ago
If you break your back in a place like Canada or the UK you are also going to be seen quickly. Both systems triage. The wait for non urgent needs in the US system is still weeks to months
georgemcbay 5d ago
> But it's simply not true. my mom broke her back last year and before we realized that her back was broken, we saw an urgent care doctor, same day, within 30mins (I don't recall the exact timescale now, but it was pretty much instant). Who promptly gave my mom an Rx and told us to go to the ER. Ok. But in the reply you are responding to I specifically carved out an exception for emergency situations: > I can only surmise these people haven't been to a non-emergency doctor since prior to 2020. Your mom's situation was certainly an emergency. I'm glad she was seen promptly, but her situation is very different than someone who needs to see a specialist for something that is not immediately life threatening (even if waiting could have serious long term health consequences).
underlipton 5d ago
Urgent care is not a replacement for a family doctor or internist who can track your health across long periods of time. That's like comparing a substitute teacher to a tutor; a sub might be able to answer your questions, but they cannot track your academic progress over time and help you tackle an extended course.
- ryandrake 5d ago
  Exactly. Last time I moved to a new area, out of about 5 local family doctors, the shortest wait time for a New Patient Appointment was eight months. In the good ol' non-socialized-medicine USA. So for eight months, we had to rely on urgent care for every medical need.

stephenhuey 5d ago

Urgent care would not be urgent if you had to wait months. Hang out with a few elderly people who actually need to see specialists more than people like me. Over the years, I've heard plenty of stories from people I know waiting multiple months to see specialists.

diamondlovesyou 5d ago
Yeah, and specialists are "usually" not available via urgent care. If not for the like of urgent care, specialties would be worse. The fact that it takes so long for such access is still a demand and supply problem at the end of the day, no way around the knowledge bottleneck - fixing that means shifting demand to different, more plentiful, supply (doing that soundly is not trivial, but likely easier than attempting to multiply the specialists, depending on the specialist). ERs are expensive because they have to have certain specialties "on tap" 24/7, among other reasons. This is not a unique problem of any single health-care system.

AngryData 5d ago

I can do anecdotes too. My father had his heart in afib for over 3 months straight as US hospitals and doctors jerked him around and set appointments weeks out before they finally removed his thyroid, despite a family history of thyroid problems and having multiple previous hospital trips for suspected heart attacks, which by itself should give the obvious conclusion that his thyroid needed to be removed. Being in afib just for a few days can cause permanent heart damage, heart attack, and death. And even once they decided it should be done, it was another 2.5 weeks before they scheduled the surgery. I don't see how anyone can think the US medical system is any good for anybody but the obscenely wealthy. No doctor in existence would consider that an acceptable scenario, but the profit driven investors seemingly had no problem with him dieing when they had more profitable patients to serve first.

Spooky23 5d ago

30 years ago, you’d just call your GPs office and they would have told you to go to the ER. Instead your moms insurer paid $150 for an interaction that likely funneled you their medical networks local hospital and added low value. Urgent care is a grift to replace a relationship with a doctor or practice with a lower paid, lower skilled NP. It’s more a sales funnel that anything.

ChickeNES 5d ago
> relationship with a doctor or practice What if I don't care about this whatsoever?
- Spooky23 5d ago
  Go to a doc in the box and be happy.

lovich 5d ago

If you break your back in a place like Canada or the UK you are also going to be seen quickly. Both systems triage. The wait for non urgent needs in the US system is still weeks to months

georgemcbay 5d ago

> But it's simply not true. my mom broke her back last year and before we realized that her back was broken, we saw an urgent care doctor, same day, within 30mins (I don't recall the exact timescale now, but it was pretty much instant). Who promptly gave my mom an Rx and told us to go to the ER. Ok. But in the reply you are responding to I specifically carved out an exception for emergency situations: > I can only surmise these people haven't been to a non-emergency doctor since prior to 2020. Your mom's situation was certainly an emergency. I'm glad she was seen promptly, but her situation is very different than someone who needs to see a specialist for something that is not immediately life threatening (even if waiting could have serious long term health consequences).

underlipton 5d ago

Urgent care is not a replacement for a family doctor or internist who can track your health across long periods of time. That's like comparing a substitute teacher to a tutor; a sub might be able to answer your questions, but they cannot track your academic progress over time and help you tackle an extended course.

ryandrake 5d ago
Exactly. Last time I moved to a new area, out of about 5 local family doctors, the shortest wait time for a New Patient Appointment was eight months. In the good ol' non-socialized-medicine USA. So for eight months, we had to rely on urgent care for every medical need.