Experts say Hurricane Maria, which hit in 2017, exposed an already deteriorating system.

“The collapse is caused mainly by debt and the economic crisis in Puerto Rico and historic privatization of the health care system there. Our research shows patients are waiting for six to eight months to get an appointment with a specialist. If that’s not a sign of collapse, I don’t know what is,” said Varas-Diaz.

  • MammalEnglish
    46•2 years ago

    Puerto Rico is just the canary in the coal mine. The entire US healthcare system is on the brink of collapse.

      • MammalEnglish
        17•2 years ago

        Heard. And that’s for people with health insurance and the ability to pay deductibles / co-pays for care in the first place. Everyone else is kinda fucked.

          • MammalEnglish
            4•2 years ago

            Medicare is Federally managed, Medicade is state-by-state. To qualify for Medicaid in most states you have to be at or near poverty levels of income - that’s around $11k to $15,000 a year maximum in order to qualify for it.

            • @[email protected]
              3•2 years ago

              Don’t forget about the gap between qualifying for Medicaid and qualifying for marketplace subsidies. Expanded Medicaid covers that gap, but some states declined the federal money to cover it.

      • @[email protected]
        5•2 years ago

        I live near a college town with a big medical center and lots of doctors graduating. Some of the specialists here are not taking new patients at all and there is no waiting list. Only alternative is to drive 50 miles to another city.

        • PeleSpiritOPEnglish
          2•2 years ago

          You’d think with the internet and all, that we could have better healthcare, not worse. Specialists could see you over zoom with a nurse taking all of your vitals in person. They’re just taking tests and talking to you, it’s not new science that way. You could even have 2 specialists seeing the same info and you could have them discuss it between themselves. Healthcare hasn’t been about health and healing for a very long time.

      • Alto
        13•2 years ago

        Yep. It’s what’s gotten my father to pull his head out of his ass regarding public Healthcare. His last argument was longer wait times in Canada/UK, and the difference us pretty much gone. Broken doesn’t even begin to describe it.

          • Maeve
            3•2 years ago

            My buddy has* VA healthcare. The rest of us don’t even get to see a doctor, dentist or anything else.

            Corrected.