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
I don’t know what to say, I can’t imagine it being any other way.
In Switzerland, it works like this: you choose your deductible, between 300 CHF (330 EUR) and 2500 CHF (2730 EUR) per year. Lower deductible means higher premiums and vice versa. A typical premium for a 2500 deductible might be 4000 CHF per year (4360 EUR). The insurance companies are private, and they compete, but, the insurance terms are fixed by the state by law - so it doesn’t really matter which insurance company you choose. There is zero bullshit like in the USA where, once you need something, they go “ah well you see on page 32478234 of our terms it says you can get rekt, actually”. If you need medical services, you get them. It is the law.
Insurance is compulsory. People who can’t afford the premium get subsidies by the state. People who don’t earn any money for any reason get the entire premium paid for by social services.
I was going to say that sucks, but then I realized you guys have pretty low taxes compared to ours. Okay, fair.
Do underage, unemployed, retired people, etc, also have to get private insurance though? Because I imagine there are people out there who can’t afford that pretty damn expensive insurance.
Yes, see the last sentence of my previous comment. Premiums are either partially or completely covered by the state for those that can’t pay them. Also keep in mind that while 4000 CHF might seem expensive, salaries in Switzerland are also quite high. A supermarket cashier makes ~60k, qualified workers twice that.
France
Fainted outside while getting a covid test with 40C fever
Ambulance trip to the hospital
Stayed a few hours
0€
UK
I have never paid anything for any kind of medical care. I do pay for my medicine prescriptions, which coat about £10 when I need them, which is infrequent.
They are essentially capped at something like £120 per year if you did need a lot.
Canadian here.
$0 for everything, generally
If you have blood pumping from a stump, or have something catastrophic and are in immediate peril, you are seen quickly and get first class treatment…in most cases… However, our Indigenous population and other vulnerable sectors do not always get treated well sadly, and in some remote places access to health care is limited
Now if it’s something “minor”, you will wait for an appointment, or in the ER…for a long time, like 6-18 hours. which I have done many times However, you will get seen, and you will get services… The biggest bill I ever had was like $15 for parking
Some examples from my own experience: My mother had multiple, debiliatating illnesses over 20+ years, $0 Dad had a heart attack 15 years ago, $0 I was born , c-section, $0 i had multiple children, $0 Vasectomy (no more children haha) $0 Massive car accident, many injuries, $0 See my doctor annually for checkup, $0
Wait times suck in the US, too. I snapped my collarbone when I fell off my bike. It was gnarly. I waited in the waiting room for three hours to get a bed in the hallway then I waited another another two hours to have my first x-ray. Between waiting for each nurse or PA, I was there for 9 hours. And during that time all they did was take some x-rays, told me my collar bone was really fucking broken and scubbed dirt out if my wounds. I was sent home considerably uncomfortable. I had to wait a week to see a doctor to assess my collar bone and another week have the surgery. It sucked
And here’s another fun example: I started having chronic nonstop migraines a few years ago. After a couple very long months of back and forth with my primary care, I finally got a referral to neurology, but I had to wait over a month for them to contact me, and then even after they finally contacted me I had to wait EIGHT MONTHS to finally have a video appointment.
Edit: fixed lots of careless typos.
I have walked out of an ER waiting room with a multiple fractured hand/wrist, after waiting 6 hrs.
I needed to eat, that day.
I bought a brace and splints at a Rite Aid, and just set it myself, while biting down on a wallet, and then taught myself to be left-handed.
Years later, got an xray, Doc was surprised to learn I’d set it myself, said I did a pretty good job.
My having taken a comprehensive combat first aid / trauma response training course at a local gun range, a decade ago, was more useful than the entire US healthcare system.
I came into this thread to speak about wait times too, but you said it much better than I could have. Thank you :)
You are very welcome.
We need to acknowledge the problems if we want to address them.
The system isn’t perfect, but it does (generally) have your back when you get sick
Healthcare is one of, if not THE most important, valuable and defining parts about being Canadian. Right alongside being polite and friendly, in my opinion.
…unfortunately, the shitheads know this too, hence the attacks on public healthcare. It will not work tho, as the reptile people hate each other and cannot concieve of even small sacrifices to help others, and they cannot understand liking others either.
Canadians like each other, have a great thing going, and know it.
Stay strong hosers
We had to rush my SO to the ER in the last year and the wait time was actually only about an hour. It’s probably specific to the area you are in but I was shocked too since I kept hearing about the long waits so I braced myself. All in all the whole visit took likr 6 hours since they kept having to run more tests and he had to wait for results. It didn’t end up being anything major and the overall experience was mostly positive.
Oh and of course the entire visit was $0.
Australia. A broken arm no fee. General check up - no fee.
Crying in expat
Canadian here:
Some provincial governments are purposely underfunding healthcare in their provinces in order to make it worse. The purpose behind this is to try and push for more private healthcare. They figure if everyone thinks the current healthcare system sucks, it’s easier to sell them on private. I’m fucking tired of this shit. The world is just full of greedy selfish assholes.
This is what the US is doing with other successful public services, like our postal service, social safety services, along with our limited public insurance options. I feel like the goal of this tactic generally needs to be shouted out, taught, put on billboards for a decade, because it just keeps working for right-wing saboteurs in so many situations
Some provincial governments are purposely underfunding healthcare in their provinces in order to make it worse. The purpose behind this is to try and push for more private healthcare.
Some are trying similar things here in France. They’ve been doing that with many other public services too.
They have success because people don’t have a consistent, active defense. Heroes die, the laws of nature stay the same.
And they always seem to take this end stage where awful people get in-charge and destroy the conditions that enabled them.
It is because humans are inherently flawed in a fatal way, and are destined to wipe themselves.
I hope something better founded replaces us.
We’ve also got luxury health for our teeth only. Its not like we need them to eat properly and its not like we need to do that daily.
I’ve spent thousands of dollars of government money for digestive issues that I’m fairly confident link back to the fact that my teeth only make contact in 4 places, but the cabal of dentists and orthodontists keep teeth payable and I can’t afford $10k for braces that I (who am not a medical professional) think I need, but that orthodontists (who, in this country are licensed tooth renovation salespeople) think they could give me nicer looking teeth for.
I agree to an extent that cosmetic medicine doesn’t need to be covered, but there’s no option for me to get my teeth medically corrected so I can eat properly, or, and what may be my biggest gripe, that I have a medical practitioner that wants to get me out of the healthcare system rather than sell me a fucking smile.
MAGA Doug Ford and Danielle Smith.
deleted by creator
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!
i think transplants are expensive anywhere, since its such a rare thing and livers are hard to come by. assuming you arnt going to questionable countries for a transplant.
Sweden.
I broke my knee at 16. Hospital bill: $0 (because I was under age at the time)
Any consultation with a nurse/doctor follows the standard fee of:~$25
Everyone gets free dental until they turn 26 years old.
My dad recently broke his arm (again). The total bill from the hospital including casting and xray: ~$35
If you have to spend more than ~$200 on medications in a year, you will be capped at that amount and everything above is literally, free.
Same goes for doctors visits but that’s a separate ~$200 cap reached independently
Australian here.
Just took my wife to the ER twice this weekend. Stressy.
Blood tests, consults, medication, drip, snacks and drinks, the lot.
$0
Can you imagine, on top of all that stressy, you had a MASSIVE , life-altering bill?!
What the fuk kinda social agreement is that?
…Like what’s in it for the average yank now?
But do you know how much FREEDOMTM we have?!
they get to brag about their invincible military. Neoliberalism also ruined their military, though, so they also have to pretend like they won against Iran.
Italy:
Going to doctor is free. Going to hospital is free unless you went for a non-emergency. In that case you may be eligible to pay something like 30€ (if you are poor you pay 0 anyways).
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.
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.
I have heard horror stories about having to bribe the doctor and nurses when you arrive at the hospital in labor because they give bare minimum plus “mistakes” otherwise. Is it free plus expected/required tip?
Didn’t hear of something like this, most likely a local scandal somewhere. Not a common practice. However, some officially paid options remain, like the most potent forms of anesthesia, or a private room in some instances.
There are some forms of widespread corruption. Many of the head physicians are bribed by pharmacy companies so that doctors prescribe unnecessarily expensive (albeit still relevant) medication, racking the patient’s bills on that. In some instances, bribing the right people allows you to bypass the queues as an urgent patient without being one.
As per maternity hospitals, I’ve heard of a few…questionable practices, still. The “husband stitch”, for example, is still a thing in some regional hospitals, and it’s not good for women’s health and wellbeing.
Cool, thanks for the response
You explained the difference yourself with your wording.
In universal healthcare, paying the doctor is a “horrible bribe”, and illegal and punished by law, especially for the doctor. In private healthcare, it’s the only way to get healthcare.
Private healthcare is the literal horror story, but normalized.
UK.
Visit to doctor: free
Ambulance trip to hospital: free
Broken arm: free
Pregnancy care, maternity, birth, etc: free
Cancer treatment, including multiple rounds of Chemotherapy, surgery, post-op care, etc etc: freePrescription: about £10, but I get an annual fixed price unlimited pass which pays for itself in a month or three all the stuff I’m on.
Parking at the hospital: not free.Dentist: not free.
The dentist is still heavily discounted though
Very much so, yes.
They broke your arm for free. Next time it’ll be a leg. /s
And, how long is the wait for any of the free services for a typical UK resident?
If you’re going where I think you’re going with this I’d like to point out that wait times in the US aren’t exactly zero.
Depends. My annual checkup needed to be booked weeks in advance, whereas when I rang them about a mole that started bleeding, they wanted a picture and when they saw it, they referred me urgently to the dermatology department. I had an appointment that Saturday and they froze it off, but the dermatologist didn’t think it was skin cancer. Since I was there anyway and it was annoying, it was bye bye mole. The NHS can move fast when it needs to. My aunt waited quite a while for her hip replacement but when my other uncle fell and broke his they did it straight away.
If you turn up at A&E (emergency room) at the weekend after pub closing time you’ll be waiting hours and hours, but they deal with the most urgent stuff first.
It used to be better before the conservatives underfunded it for a decade and a half, and having an anti-immigrant policy and restricting placed on UK training hasn’t helped the recruitment crisis any, but it’s still good and I didn’t have to mortgage my house to pay for my relative’s cancer treatment.
Privatisation ruins everything for everyone except the CEOs and shareholders.
I used to live there and the NHS wait times were lower than any I had in the U.S. with insurance. Probably depends on the area, and I’ve heard it’s worse than it used to be because the conservatives keep expecting them to do more with less.
There’s also no wasted time. If your appointment was at 9:30, you’d be called in almost right at 9:30. If you’re called into a room, you’re not going to sit there waiting for a nurse to come take your blood pressure and ask what’s happening so they can relay it to the doctor. When you’re done with the doctor, you leave. You don’t have to go pay or wait for someone to check your finances or any of that.
And their health insurance is better because it has to at least offer something the NHS doesn’t.
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.
Loved one recently diagnosed with cancer. Within a week she has a team of 5 medical professionals assigned to her to kill this thing. If she was in the USA, this would bankrupt the family.
Actually if she was in the USA. She would need to call around to find a doctor accepting new patients that take her insurance.
My friend has a tumor on her spine. It took 4 months to get an appointment with a doctor who took her insurance.
The doctor met with her to tell her that “she doesn’t feel qualified to assist. This case is is clearly too critical for her( the doctor)”.
And…
Now she’s calling around again.
While the tumor grows
Yeah, I had an ear issue and got referred to an ENT. The ENT required that I do a hearing test. I said my hearing is fine, I have pain in my ear. Well it’s a requirement to get an appointment. Ok, fine, sign me up for that. 30 days out I get this hearing test, then have the appointment 4 months later. So I just had to deal with pain for 4 months. I went to urgent care and ER while waiting because I was in pain daily and couldn’t keep waiting. They all said they couldn’t see anything and I would need to talk to an ENT. The ENT sees it and says the same shit as the urgent care and ER. So 4 months has gone by and all any doctor did was throw their hands up and say IDK bro. I see another ENT who gives me a steroid ear drop that doesn’t fucking work. We’re 6 months in and fucking nothing has happened. Eventually it gets kinda better just on its own after I straight gave up on trying to get it taken care of. I still have flare-ups here and there, but it’s mostly better. Uh hopefully it’s not fucking cancer or something. 🤷♂️
Yep if it ain’t in the checklist or easy to fix things I know how to bill for - I ain’t fixing it.
Imagine if most mechanics, or any other profession worked this way.
Well shit, you don’t need an oil change, an air filter change, and your spark plugs are good. Nothing I can do. This case is too complicated for me. Best of luck That’ll be $83739
