Anyone else totally frustrated with US medical care?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
Oh, do you really think Obamacare was a success? https://edworkforce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=408166 |
Anonymous
[twitter]
Op - just pay for a concierge practice = problem solved |
Anonymous
| DCUM response: Blame peri menopause for any and all symptoms. |
Anonymous
Woof, then your doctors are terrible. Just yesterday NYT wrote about a recent study of chat bots for medical advice: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/09/well/chatgpt-health-advice.html. They identified the correct course of action, e.g. self-treat at home or call an ambulance, just 50 percent of the time. The LLM’a diagnoses were correct about a third of the time. |
Anonymous
|
No, actually, not at all. My daughter's friend was diagnosed with brain cancer and the speed at which he was taken from the ER where it was seen on a scan he got for a headache, back to the OR with a literal world class surgeon operating on him, was astounding. Like, within 8 hours. And guess what? When he got his MRI (every 3-6 months, like clockwork, at a world class medical institution!) and it showed the cancer had come back, he again had surgery within 24 hours and even had an intrathecal catheter placed to get literally the best, newest, most cutting edge treatment to help him survive. And he is still alive, a year later! He would not be, without the system working quickly for him, and the research for these new devices, and the best surgeons wanting to be HERE so the best surgeons are available to operate on him. So no, your complaints about having to fill out paperwork or wait too long for your doctor to come back into the room ring hollow to me. If you have an actual medical emergency, or a rare disease, this is an amazing place to get health care.
|
Anonymous
I mean, if you really can't get your doctor to order you a basic bloodwork panel, you can order all of those inexpensive, common tests yourself from labcorp for under 100 dollars. |
Anonymous
"While I appreciate the cutting edge, expensive, medical tools available to me that my grandparents never would have dreamed of having access to, what I really want is for my doctor to hand me a bottle of iron and vitD supplements and they WON'T TAKE THE TIME TO SEE ME FOR THIS!" |
Anonymous
Not imaginary. But if you think there is a "test" out there that says "guess what, the test came back positive for migraine headaches!", you'd be wrong. Headaches are incredibly common. It's life. |
Anonymous
| Our solution has been Kaiser Permanente. I know they get a lot of hate on here, but mostly it's because they refuse to do unnecessary things. Which is frustrating from an individual perspective, but helpful from an overall perspective (helps keep costs down and helps not clog up doctor appts for others). Kaiser already knows absolutely everything about me so I don't have to fill anything out. Their doctors aren't focused on running extra tests because they're salaried and aren't paid for running more stuff. |
Anonymous
| You can order labwork yourself from Quest or Labcorp. |
Anonymous
| I'd like to know who isn't? |
Anonymous
i think kaiser is great for people who want streamlined, basic, good health care without having to wait a long time for appointments. it is not good for people who want extensive workups, have health anxiety, or who want to see specialists without getting a sign off from their PCP that seeing a specialist is necessary. (for example, a person who wants to see an endocrinologist because they are frequently tired, and their PCP has said that their thyroid workup is normal, their iron is normal, their vitamin D is normal, and that most likely their fatigue is due to some sleep apnea due to large tonsils and their elevated BMI and is recommending a sleep study. the sort of person who is angry at this plan of care, is someone who needs an open access plan so they can see whatever specialist they want. however, that is the reason why it's impossible to get an endocrinology appointment. they're all booked up with people like the above.) |
Anonymous
|
No, the actual care is great. It's just way too expensive.
|
Anonymous
| I feel like I have great dental and eye care, but anything else is ... mediocre. The appointment might be fine, but being able to communicate with my doctors outside of them is so hard I don't even bother most of the time. And the front desk people at my main Dr's office are really hostile. They're forever pushing me to fill out some mental health forms. I know I'm depressed - no need to discuss it with my doctor who only allocates a set amount of time for each patient - we won't solve lifelong depression in 12 minutes. |
Anonymous
I'm not, because when there is an emergency, our health care is great. Our vaccines and preventative care are largely free. Our specialists are world class and widely available to anyone, even without a referral in most cases (this is also why you have to wait a while to see them sometimes). Have you tried to get a neuropsych evaluation in canada or the UK? have you tried to get an elective knee replacement in canada or the UK if you are 78 years old? have you tried to get vaccines in pakistan? do we need to go there?) |