UK, Italy, France quality decline, now poorer than all 50 states
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Anonymous
Statistically wait time for surgery in the US is much shorter than Europe, and even more so than Canada. |
Anonymous
Autism evaluation for your child is a two year waiting list min. in the DMV. Excluding the long waitlist for services there after. 1 in 5 kids now need mental health evaluation/ support. |
Anonymous
Stats; Approximately 1 in 5 children (21%) ages 3 to 17 in the U.S. has a diagnosed mental, emotional, or behavioral health condition, according to CDC data. |
Anonymous
For surgery... but have you seen complaints in our forums hear about people getting in to see specialists in the DC area? year waits in some cases. So people go concierge and then what's the point of having insurance at all at that point? I'd rather have universal health care plus the concierge for those who want it / can afford it. Don't make us pay eye-watering premiums for ... nothing. Basically just enriches middlemen and insurance. Who thinks that's a good idea? Raise your hand. |
Anonymous
+1 I'm trying to get in to see a specialist who I've seen for years for a follow up appt and can't get an appointment for FOUR MONTHS. |
Anonymous
Be thankful you’re not in Canada. I lived in a border state and the surgeons got a lot of Canadian business from Canadians, crossing the border and paying cash for surgeries because they could get them scheduled in 3 to 4 weeks versus 8 to 18 months in Canada. |
Anonymous
You pay for universal health care with your taxes, it's not "free." The idea that somehow universal healthcare would get rid of the middleman has me rolling on the floor laughing, as someone who's lived with the NHS and German health systems. The NHS admin is extremely bloated, always teetering on the point of collapse despite budgets forever going up, still has massive waiting lists and bare bones services. |
Anonymous
I think this poster is also missing the point when seeing these specialist threads: people are having trouble booking very specific specialists who are in high demand. I know from experience that you can see A specialist in the US extremely quickly. As far as going concierge, that is something for rich people. I would never pay for that and have never needed to pay for that because I can be seen quickly. In Europe you might have one specialist option, and your GP (also often your only option) is gatekeeping and deciding how urgent the need for you to see them, if at all, is because they don't want to strain the system too much. And then after being able to see the specialist, months later, you wait many more months for surgery. |
Anonymous
Not to mention the wait for MRIs in Canda. Buffalo NY has numerous MRI clinics that cater to Canadians. Very transparent pricing on their websites, too. U.S. has four times the number of MRI machines per capita than Canada has. |
Anonymous
In Quebec there is even a long wait to be assigned a GP (know some people who are waiting 2 years after moving), and all family members might have different ones. It's a very convoluted system and frustrating in other ways. I'd love to see our costs and system streamlined, but not the Canadian way. |
Anonymous
LOL, good luck with that under universal healthcare. In some places they barely even recognize autism properly. You all seem to have no perspective on what true long term waitlists and government triage look like. I have a friend who severely tore a muscle from a major sports injury, and because Canadian healthcare considered it “non urgent,” they put him on a six month waitlist for surgery. By month two he was already in a lot of pain and kept going back and forth trying to get help, but they just kept giving him pain medication and telling him to wait. At that point it was starting to get concerning, so he finally drove across the border to the U.S. and paid out of pocket to have the surgery done. Unfortunately, by then it had already started healing incorrectly, and he now has permanent limited function in that muscle and can never play that sport again. If it had been addressed right away, he likely would have had a real chance at a full recovery. People get frustrated with private healthcare denying claims, and yes, that absolutely happens, but at least there are appeals, alternative providers, and options. Under fully government run systems, you wait for the government, and they are often not accountable and move very slowly. |
Anonymous
Well, here is the thing. In cases involving mental health or autism related needs, if you do not want to wait for in network availability, you can often see someone almost immediately by going out of network, paying out of pocket up front, and then getting reimbursed afterward. That is exactly what we do for things that are extremely urgent. The difference is that in the U.S. you actually have options. Many out of network plans still reimburse around 75 to 80% depending on your coverage. So yes, it can cost more, but you are not completely stuck waiting on a centralized system to decide when you are allowed to receive care. Under government run or single payer systems, there often is no alternative path. You wait in line, and if the system decides your case is not urgent enough, you simply wait longer. |
Anonymous
FTFY-In the USA, you have options if you are rich enough to pay out of pocket for someone out of network. But if you are poor enough that you have to take what is in-network, offered by Medicaid etc., you're not going to do well. Which is why the data show the US has a lower life expectancy (5-9 years lower depending on the US state) than several European countries and higher mortality rates. The PP is happy to be able to do the end run around the health care system because the PP has money to do so. But as a system as a whole, US health care is failing big segments of the population. |
Anonymous
that's nice that we have 4x the number of MRI machines than Canada, but it also probably costs 4x as much. Are those Canadians paying out of pocket for those MRIs, to the tune of $2000 a pop? What good is having 4x as many machines if millions of Americans cannot afford to get an MRI? |
Anonymous
They can't get MRIs. The Canadian system is severely strained in ways different from the US system where costs are really the main issue limiting access (aside from very rural areas). Neither is good. |