As an American I’m curious what it’s like if you need to go to the doctor and how much you pay from say a broken arm to general checkup. Also list what country please
Sweden.
Pretty decent for anything acute (broken something, dislocated whatchamacallit), but utter dog shit for chronic issues. “Yeah, you have sinus issues, wait 3+ months for ENT” or “Okay, Sertraline’s doing shit for you except making you more grumpy, but keep trying with it”. So fucking awful that literal WebMD can be better for some chronic conditions.
Thank you for pointing out the flaws. Americans glorify universal care, and non Americans don’t understand what they are missing.
As an immigrant to America from a country with universal care, as well as suffering from an auto immune disorder, I am doing considerably better under the USA system than I was in the country I came from.
Besides the difficulty seeing specialists and getting advanced medication and procedures you have mentioned, proponents of universal care often forget to mention the proliferation of private medical services in every country offering universal care. How come there is a market for private hospitals and clinics if the public system is as great as they claim?
That being said, I still think the USA system needs major improvement, and in my 20 years of living in the USA, has noticeably gotten worse.
Canadian. I have a chronic issue that I wait long times to see a specialist. Mainly because after seeing them for a few visits to update treatment, I don’t see them for a couple years but can’t immediately go back because I need to be re-referred which can take awhile due to waitlists. But I can see my GP (in person or phone call) very quickly if needed and all free. I had a serious issue not long ago and got seen in Urgent Care in a couple hours (avoided ER), sent to specialist next day, and got all the testing done quite quickly and then treated - less than a week. No cost. Might have been a bit quicker in a pay system but my life wasn’t threatened and I didn’t have to worry about whether or not it would be covered by my insurance or what the copay would be. I know people who complain about the slowness of non life threating issues but they always have the option of paying for care - they just need to leave Canada, and some do. I have a relative who was ticked that the surgeon he saw wouldn’t recommend an operation so he went to the US and paid to have it done only to find that it didn’t really solve his problem (just like his ‘idiot’ Canadian doc had said) and he was now out a load of money and still had a chronic issue. For life threatening issues, all my family and friends have had timely & free service. An aunt went into ER 2 weeks ago for severe stomach pain. Got a CT and was into surgery a day later. Five days in hosptial and she’s now recovering at home with occassional health nurse visits. No charge. Didn’t even have to pay for most of her medication costs because they were mostly covered under Pharmacare.
Living in France
I know someone who had to get a liver transplantation. The surgery was costing something like 300000 euros ( around 350,000 USD ). She could never afford such surgery. She was flown by helicopter to the hospital and back on a around 3 hours trip. Did not pay anything…
WOW!
Hi,
(France) for a broken arm or a general checkup you wouldn’t pay anything. Actually, for the checkup you would pay upfront (my doc takes 10€) and get reimbursed a few days later.
Don’t be fooled, there are constant attacks on this system by the ruling class, they try and nudge the narrative a little bit every day, but it’s so entrenched here I keep my hopes up that we won’t let it go without a fight.
amazing. i cant fathom this not being the global norm
It is except for us
Russia
Everyone has free health insurance that covers all procedures, doctor visits, ambulance calls, and most hospitalization cases in the respective government clinics based on where they live.
General physicians are available at any government clinic as needed, regardless of where you are. Other specialists are only available at your main clinic and directed to either by GP or as part of a free 5-yearly checkup. You can book an appointment online, call into the clinic, or come in person to do so. GPs are always available on short notice, and you can get there without booking if you need urgent care. Dentists are also available without booking for urgent cases. Trauma units operate 24/7 and accept without booking.
If you’re too sick to come in person, you can also call for a GP to arrive through a unified hotline, regardless of your current location, or even whether you have Russian citizenship or insurance for that matter.
The quality of care itself is highly regionally dependent, but mostly alright. Larger cities like Moscow and Saint Petersburg have it better, smaller, faraway cities have it worse. Queues differ significantly between places and specialists, and can be anything between 15 minutes and 2-3 weeks.
Private clinics exist, prices are bitey, but the quality of care is generally high. Work can offer private health insurance, giving free access to their services.
TL;DR all free (with some paid options), available to everyone, decent quality, acceptable waiting times.
UK here.
Its better then America, but many fail to see that our NHS wasn’t given freely, we struggled for it, and year by year we loose more of it to privatisation. I am currently witnessing one hospital closure in my county, and this is happening across the board. Nhs Waiting lists are a hot topic across the country due in part to years of austerity measures.
i live in Canada and it’s a constant struggle to keep it afloat, we have our own brand of braindead morons we call maple maga that actively try to sabotage it at every possible opportunity…
what we do have is pretty good for basic coverage, but it excludes mental and *most *dental, and you still need insurance through work for costs of medicine etc. that being said, all hospital visits, stays, and treatments receive no billings.
just ‘getting’ universal healthcare isn’t enough, you have to fight for it, and you have to fight to keep it.
Spain. I have private health insurance (it’s quite affordable here).
If you are dying, use the public services. They will do whatever it takes (under their material resources) to save you.
If you want comfort and probably reduce waiting times, go private. Public hospitals have long waits for anything that’s not immediately disabling/life threatening.
Example. My dad had a fall at home alone and broke his femur. He used his telemedicine device to call for help. When I got at his home, the paramedics were already there. They stabilised him, put him in ambulance and brought him to a public hospital. The same evening he had a titanium inserted. After five days in the hospital he was transferred to a recovery center.
Guess the cost?
Zero euros.
I hope your dad is doing better now.
Well, he passed five years after that so… no. But thanks anyway.
Austrian here: medical debt does not exist.
Both my boys broke their arms snowboarding (a couple of years between each accident), costs for the first one were none because we went to a regular hospital (including everything from setting the bone to cast to regular checkups, cast removal and clean bill of health report). Son #2 had to go to a private clinic. Which was still subsidized by our national healthcare provider, so I only paid 65€ for x-ray, setting the bone and the cast. Checkup and removal back home were free.
GP visits are fully covered. Some medication is subsidized, but not everything. I rarely pay more than 10€ for a box of pills of any kind, even if I get them without a subscription (for instance sea sickness in my case). Our docs recommend various exams the older you get to catch any budding cancer cells before they can cause too much damage (Prostate exam, Mammogram, Colonoscopy, …). All covered.
Dental depends. Fillings are covered, if you go for the cheap (bad) ones. Anything beyond that will cost you. Orthodontics depends on age. For kids up to 18yo it’s completely free. Adults have to pay. Don’t ask me for prices though.
Pregnancy/birth: all covered, including all necessary exams.
If a parent is insured (i.e. employed), their kids are covered as well automatically.
Never in my 45+ years have I ever had to wonder if I could afford a medical procedure. Sure, there’s a big lump of money removed from my paycheck every month (minimum employment period is a month, you can’t fire people with shorter notice except when they messed up royally). But it’s the same for everyone in the same salary bracket (more income = higher share; does not change level of care), and it is a guarantee for social peace.
Latvia, a country where 1000 EUR after tax is considered a decent salary, but realistically you need to earn above that to live comfortably. There is a certain budget and quotas for government-funded procedures and appointments. For in-demand things it runs very fast. It’s normal to have to get an appointment for non-urgent things 3-6 months in advance to get a partially funded price, then it usually costs less than 10 EUR per. Non-subsidized appointment slots are generally available very fast, but can cost anywhere form 25 to 90 EUR depending on the doctor, clinic and so on. Blood test subsidies are also very few and far between. I think I can only get one subsidized TSH test a year. There are private health insurance plans that generally cost triple digit sums per year. Not worth taking it privately as they will not cover existing chronic health conditions, but can be great if arranged through and partially covered by the employer. These insurances return part of the costs that patients pay out of pocket for these non-subsidized expenses. I think the rising popularity of these plans are partially to blame for 2-3x increase in medical appointment costs over the past 10 years.
Every now and then I see old people trying to register for appointments at the clinics and being astonished that they’ll have to either wait for half a year or to pay 1/10th of their pension to see the doc in a couple of weeks.
I don’t know that much about urgent procedures. I believe the ambulance rides are covered if the medical emergency is deemed serious enough. Surgeries and hospital stays are also partially covered for a time, especially in serious cases.
Should not have opened this today. Was already depressed.
UK
If you need urgent care, you get it and it’s almost always high-quality. If non-urgent, you might wait several months for an appointment. I’ve never personally had a problem with quality of care, only wait times. That’s one of the reasons the government is trying to reform the way we do cancer screening and prevention, because it’s hard to catch it early when it takes so long to be seen. The NHS is not in a great state currently, but it’s getting better and we’re definitely better off with it than without it.
Also worth noting that we have a prescription charge for each prescribed item. I think it’s currently £9-something at the moment. This makes all medicine the same price for all. Some people are exempt if they are under 18, pregnant, etc.
Sweden. Doctor’s appointments cost ~€30, normally capped at ~€150 per year. There’s a cost ceiling for drugs at ~€300 per year. Urgent care is free. Dental is subsidized but only free up to age 19. The care itself is fine, there are multiple research hospitals and if you’re in a real bind one of the best research hospitals in the world.
I’d gladly pay higher taxes for better healthcare.
Romania: I use the private system cause the public system is mostly crap. People are still sometimes literally catching infections and dying in hospital, having been hospitalized for smth completely different. It’s improving though. To clarify, the aforementioned situation is news-worthy nowadays, but still…
Private system is relatively affordable and partially integrated into the national one, so that’s nice. You can see a specialist for like $50, or for free if your GP refers you to them.
