I have no reason to mock american healthcare. Sure, here in Belgium I can afford to see a doctor, but I don’t know if I can find one.
My previous doctor retired and all the other doctors in the area have a patient stop. They will only give you an appointment if you already are a known patient. I can only hope one of them is willing to take me the next time I’m sick.
My dentist has so much work he doesn’t answer his phone and doesn’t has an online method to make appointments. You have to plan your next appointment when you visit him and his agenda is usually booked for the next 6 months.Sounds close to what we have in the Czech Republic. And they even say that the doctors who came from Ukraine are “not worthy” to work here without a few years of reeducation.
Odd that your old doctor didn’t have a plan to distribute patients to new doctors when they retired.
At least my doctor notified his patients that he was going to retired. I have a collegue who found out his doctor retired when he got ill.
They’re retiring, they ain’t got time for that. My dentist did the same.
My wife’s doctor left the state hospital a few months ago. We didn’t find out until her prescription wasn’t sent to the pharmacy. Had to call the hospital to find out. They didn’t distribute the doctors patients, and they didnt even call in the prescriptions that only required a yearly check.
That’s the most tame story I have about that hospital and it’s the most luxurious hospital I’ve ever seen. It looks like a 4 star hotel. I considered suing them at one point but a family lawyer told me it would be too hard to prove fault, even though they were clearly at fault.
Not trying to downplay your plight at all, but in America this is also the case. Not only are doctors visits expensive to an extremely outrageous extent, but you might not be able to find one that can take you.
Waitlists for medical, dental, psychiatric etc doctors in my area are a minimum of 3 months long.
A few years ago I called the largest network of therapists in my area for an appointment. They told me I would be on a wait list and I probably wouldn’t hear back for 6 weeks. I got a call 6 months later.
Medical doctors and dentists are even worse. No wait lists at all. Emergency clinics full of low quality doctors and practitioners are popping up everywhere because most people don’t go to the doctors enough to still be an active patient. They don’t go enough to be seen because they can’t afford to go unless they are truly terribly sick. Those clinics charge far more, do far less, and care the minimal amount about patients.
A quick look in your ear? $150. You have a real problem? Well, they will charge you the $150 and then tell you to go to the hospital.
I have never heard of anyone in my area getting a dentist appointment in less than 3 months. To even get patient status takes a friend knowing that their doctor is taking new patients. And the chances are that if you can’t afford a doctor, your friends can’t either.
Damn, that sounds like it really sucks. Any idea why there aren’t enough doctors there?
Probably the same problem as most health care systems. Regular “general practitioner” doctors like family doctors or what we might call primary care physicians in the US are very much overworked and underpaid.
If you want to make money as a doc, you need to be a specialist at the very least.
I have a family member who is a GP and they said they wouldn’t recommend anyone become a regular doc. Too much work, too much paperwork, difficult schooling, and now nurse practitioners, DOs, and others can write scripts, the GP’s skillset is being undermined and their pay cut as clinics just use nurses to see patients instead of doctors. That’s the US anyway, but I imagine other modern countries’ doctors face too much work and too little monetary incentive to encourage others to want the job.
Sometimes it’s also stupid competitive exams that excessively reduce the number of medicine students.
I think it’s mainly because there is a limitation of the amount of students who can start the education. Every year the government holds entry exams and only the best 1600 can start the studies. Somewhere in their studies they have to choose their specialisation (heart, children, oncology,…) And as far as I know only a small part of them is interested to become a ‘housedoctor’ ( the type of doctor we have to visit when we have something like a flu)
Yeah, it’s terrible here. My doctor needs you to make an appointment, which is usually full for days (sometimes even weeks),… Last time I had something urgent I just went to random other one and explained mine was booked full… He took me, but he didn’t even come near me. 😅 It seemed that one had become a bit germophobic since Covid. Was weird to see a doctor act that way. 😅
This isn’t accurate. In the USA, none of the above would even make someone consider going to a professional for healthcare. We would wait until Orajel would become lathered across half our dumbass smiles for tooth pain, or until something starts to make a limb or nervous system stop working appropriately, before contacting professional medical assistance. The ER is reserved for those with bones sticking out of skin, or people that feel like the ~8 hour wait is better than “toughing it out” at home with alcohol and/or opioids.
Five years ago I had chest pain, I thought it was a strained pectoral muscle. It wasn’t until a friend asked my plans for the evening, and I commented I was wondering when I should call a doctor about the pain, and they told me “go to the hospital now” that I went. I was having a heart attack. So yeah. Americans avoid the doctor like crazy because you can either pay an insane amount of money to be told “take an ibuprofen and get some sleep,” or to be told you’re going to be spending a truly astronomical sum because you have twelve kinds of cancer. It’s lose-lose.
Isn’t it cheaper to fly to Europe, visit a doctor, and fly back instead of going to the ER?
Also for “normal” treatments. Getting a baby costs like $2000 in Germany without insurance. Plus flight and hotel for two months you are still far below 10K in total cost. 😁
Isn’t it cheaper to fly to Europe, visit a doctor, and fly back instead of going to the ER?
I mean, yes, but in the case of flying to another country, you need the money up front. In the US, if you can get into the ER (some people do in fact get rejected), you don’t have to pay the out-of-pocket expenses until after.
As a Canadian, I don’t like making fun of the American health care system … Americans deserve far better health care support from their government.
The other reason I don’t like making fun of it is that … our corporations, American corporations and Canadian conservatives would more than love to tear apart our health care system and privatize it all like in America.
We shouldn’t make fun of others and their situation, especially if they can’t or feel like they can’t do anything about it all … we should work together to protect what we have and to encourage more public services to be created where there aren’t any.
I’ll show this to my doctor later when I drop by for something minor and only slightly inconvenient that doesn’t really require a medical professional‘s eyes because I can do it for free. 🇪🇺🇩🇪
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Last time I visited the doctor here, I paid 300 NOK (egenandel) and got the meds for free. When my appendix tried to kill me, I had to pay for the tram ticket ride up to the hospital and the tram home the day after. Cost me 60 NOK in total
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It’s not totally free here either, I was mostly making fun of the Americans. We have a similar co pay system where you have to pay a small amount for most minor medications and treatments, up to a yearly maximum, beyond that it is completely free (you still have to do the co pay but your insurance will fully reimburse you for anything beyond the maximum).
For example, I had a nasty accident last year which broke my ankle in three places. The ordeal required ambulance transport to the hospital, multiple surgeries, MRIs, roentgen scans, various other procedures, several weeks of hospital stay, crutches and about a years worth of twice per week physical therapy and doctors appointments. Overall I paid maybe 200€ out of pocket.
I wish I could just waltz into their office without a time inconvenience, but same. 🇲🇽
You should be checking WebMD almost immediately.
Spoiler
You have cancer
Or maybe allergies. Ask your doctor about Zirtec!
Maybe it’s lupus?
Obligatory: House M.D. in a nutshell.
It’s never lupus.
me just going to the doctor and paying only €8
USA! USA! USA!
This looks like the solutions of my GP here in europe. Maybe I should move to the US.
Honestly you shouldn’t immediately go see a doctor if somethings a bit wrong. (Unless you are older or have other health risks)
