Anonymous wrote:I'd like to know who isn't?

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?)

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.

No, the actual care is great. It's just way too expensive.

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.)

I'd like to know who isn't?

You can order labwork yourself from Quest or Labcorp.

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went for a bone scan today. This amazing machine that scans over your body and analyzes bone density. I’m sure it costs millions to develop. Wonderful. But it would be nice if I could go to a doctor who would help me with my constant fatigue and low grade headaches. It’s probably not that complicated of a fix - iron? thyroid hormone tweak? Vitamin d? - but doctors don’t seem capable of helping with symptoms like that.

If your insurance is willing to pay for comprehensive top-to-bottom tests to find out why you are having headaches, I am sure docs will be willing to do it.

That’s incorrect. Many headaches are not easily diagnosed by tests.

Probably imaginary

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 wrote:I went for a bone scan today. This amazing machine that scans over your body and analyzes bone density. I’m sure it costs millions to develop. Wonderful. But it would be nice if I could go to a doctor who would help me with my constant fatigue and low grade headaches. It’s probably not that complicated of a fix - iron? thyroid hormone tweak? Vitamin d? - but doctors don’t seem capable of helping with symptoms like that.

"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 wrote:I went for a bone scan today. This amazing machine that scans over your body and analyzes bone density. I’m sure it costs millions to develop. Wonderful. But it would be nice if I could go to a doctor who would help me with my constant fatigue and low grade headaches. It’s probably not that complicated of a fix - iron? thyroid hormone tweak? Vitamin d? - but doctors don’t seem capable of helping with symptoms like that.

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.

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:they just type your symptoms into the computer and recite the response it provides. or they’ll face a lawsuit for deviating from the accepted practice. Dr AI almost here.

Do they? My free chat gpt is better than many of my doctors.

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.

DCUM response: Blame peri menopause for any and all symptoms.

[twitter]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Or is that so obvious I don’t even need to mention it?

Going to an appointment requires filling out a pile of forms. Doctors are often rushed, and even when they’re not I feel like they mostly only focus on their own specialized practice area, and instead of thinking through symptoms/issues, they just want to run expensive tests and labs, and as long as the test/lab comes out negative, that’s the end of the conversation no matter the symptoms that remain.

Be glad you can even get an appointment and the surgeries you want. My kid has spent four years in the UK. You don’t want to hear the horrors about socialized medicine..

Op - just pay for a concierge practice = problem solved

Anonymous wrote:You know Republicans have a plan coming in two weeks ..... oh two more weeks,....

It's been how many years now??????

Oh, do you really think Obamacare was a success? https://edworkforce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=408166