Not on a theoretical level, but how would you practically have to pay costs, access specialist doctors?
Rural Guatemala and it’s mostly done through mobile doctors because it’s so remote. We have universal healthcare on paper but the government spends so little on it that the resources are awful and private care tends to be a lot better and trustworthy.
I have been told that Guatemala is private insurance. I provide care in rural Guatemala (Huehuetenango) and was told that the natives have in reality no insurance. If they need medical care they have to travel to Guatemala City and pay privately. Is that incorrect?
In the US, the reality is that we don’t know.
Now that I’m insured, healthcare actually costs more than when I wasn’t. And I’m not talking about premiums - I’m talking about copays and deductibles being non-negotiable.
For instance, I thought I may have hurt my ear scuba diving a few weeks ago, so I went to the ER to see if my eardrum was perforated (ENT visits can take months to get).
They told me it was, had me pay a $300 copay, prescribed me $130 eardrops my insurance wouldn’t cover, and referred me to an ENT.
When I finally got to an ENT, they told me that my eardrum wasn’t every perforated and the ER did didn’t know what they were talking about.
Then I got an additional bill from the ER for another $1800 because my insurance company refused to pay the bill.
Had I been unisured the hospital bill would have been maybe $250 all-in after negotiations, but since I have insurance it’s $2100 for a wildly wrong diagnosis that ended up costing me another $430 in specialists and prescriptions.
Jesus fuck
When I lived in Alberta, Canada (as a USA expat circa 2010), it had pluses and minuses. Pluses: The cost was very low; in our province the premiums were nominally $44 CDN per month for an individual or $88 per family, but the windfall from oil production meant they could waive that and it was free. Emergencies were treated quickly and well. Drugs were inexpensive. The doctors seemed competent. Minuses: extreme shortages of doctors, facilities, and services. I could not find a primary care doctor taking new patients, so I had to wait at least two hours each time to see a different doctor at the walk-in clinic. They did not take or keep a medical history, so it was all up to me to know if what they prescribed was contraindicated by other drugs or conditions. Drugs, while cheap, were not covered by insurance, and some were simply not available at any price. Dental and vision coverage were not included and had to be bought on the private market. Wait lists for non-emergency procedures or treatments were ridiculously long, like 18 months to get the first appointment to talk about a hip replacement. Three months to get an MRI to diagnose chest pain.
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That sounds awful having to go through all that! In America, just buy a splint from the drug store for $20 and go back to work same day. No exhausting time in the hospital and seeing lots of doctors. No missed work. No being a drain on society and suckling on the government teat. FREEDOM!!!
Not well.
Healthcare is all free to the patient (the one caveat being a small, fixed charge for prescription medication - which is free for some groups), all paid for via national taxes based on wealth. UK.
If we need a specialist Doctor, we are referred to one. There’s no money involved for the patient whatsoever.
Attaching an unaffordable fee to healthcare would be a clear barrier for anyone who is not upper class, and this would be seen as deeply discriminatory and thus unacceptable.
There is also a private health care sector, with its own hospitals. A lot of consultants work in both the public (NHS) and private sectors, e.g., one day a week they will have a private clinic at a private hospital. The private sector is funded by insurance, and this is often a perk offered by employers. Waiting lists are generally shorter in the private sector, but, in my experience, the expertise and level of care is no better than the NHS.
Note that the prescription charge only exists in England. Medicine is free in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Personally I think the English deserve it tho 😂
In Denmark its paid through taxes.
I still have to pay to visit the dentist though, which can be quite expensive.
Regular doctors visits are free, but if youre refered to some specialist, like… i had an issue with my knee, i was directed to some therapeutic pro. That cost me like 20 euros per visit. However, a friend of mine had to visit an eye doctor which was also free.
And medicine also is self paid, like antibiotics or whatever. Its rarely super expensive though.
But i when my kid was born we had no expenses at all. His mother had to stay (with him) for 2 days at the hospital and while there she had full free access to a stocked fridge, stuff for the baby (diapers etc) and all that jazz.
Ive not heard of anyone having other expenses either, like cancer treatments or getting a broken arm fixed
I still have to pay to visit the dentist though, which can be quite expensive.
It’s interesting that this is a pretty common thing across different countries. The public health care system in Australia doesn’t cover dentists either, and in the USA you generally have dental insurance that’s totally separate from your regular health insurance.
Poorly. USA
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National Health Service, currently struggling with lack of personnel, but in general I have a family doctor I visit, on average, twice a year, for general check-up and follow-up. I can be recommended to a specialist if deemed necessary, with varying degrees of waitimg time.
For emergencies, I can either call a line, speak with someone and either have an ambulance sent directly to wherever I am or get directed to the nearest hospital, where they will already be expecting me.
No payments, even if I need an ambulance ride, a surgery and a few days in the hospital.
A good portion of people - mainly in large population centers - resort to private care, through health insurances, some out of pure need (pediatrics, cardiology, ob/gyn, psychology and psychiatry are specialities where long waiting lists exist) but the professionals working at the hospital are usually the same working private, due to a lack of effort from the state to make doctors exclusive to the NHS.
Private healthcare is usually faster to access and feels more luxurious but when things go very wrong you always get sent to the public hospitals. Cancer and other expensive care illnesses are sent to the NHS, which is usually the first to invest in expensive treatments to get a situation solved as quicky as possible and save time and money and free up space for the next in need.
Is it perfect? Hardly but it works. Nobody really knows or even understands how but it truly works.
In the UK the cost of healthcare is included in a tax called National Insurance, it’s about 10% of wages. It can be thought of mostly as emergency use only. Mental health and minor ailments are not treated. If you want that kind of service you need to go private and most people cannot afford that so they go untreated. I know a newly qualified doctor who cannot find a job despite there being a shortage of doctors.
On the plus side, we do have a brand new aircraft carrier and a royal family.
As an American, that’s a way higher tax than I expected. Does everyone pay it, even people earning under a certain threshold? In the US we have social security and Medicare that everyone has to pay.
If you earn under £1,048 a month you don’t pay.
Earn £1,048 to £4,189 a month is 12%
Over £4,189 a month is 2%.
That’s not a typo.
Your royal family isn’t brand new.
They say it’s a thousand years old and have no intention of changing anything. It makes sense because the world hardly changed since 927 so they might as well keep going with the same schtick.
It doesn’t really matter, but worth knowing, only a small amount of your national insurance goes toward NHS costs. The NHS is primarily funded by general taxation. Your National Insurance contributions largely go to paying for state pensions.
That’s an excellent point, state pensions are a significant burden, particularly police. We need to look after those guys so they can continue to prosecute the unwinnable war on drugs.
With good insurance, I mostly just pay the copay. I do not have good insurance.
In the US with private insurance. I basically just go online, search for providers in my insurance’s network, and then check a different list of different procedures and their costs according to my insurance. Sometimes it’s $30 if I’m seeing my main doctor, $30 for a specialist, $40 for urgent care, $0 for a specific telehealth provider, 20% for an ER visit etc. The main thing I genuinely like about my plan is that the monthly out-of-pocket price cap for generic medications is pretty low. That being said, I know a few people who pay $0 for 90% of what they need with everything else being cheap
I open Google, search “am I gonna die”, and if it says probably not, then I ignore whatever it is and hope it goes away. And if it says I am, then I wait for the end to come.
USA USA USA
Concurrunt public and private system, it’s obviously busier with less doctors in the public system, and it’s free. Specialists too. Expect to wait six to twelve months for a specialist.
Private system is affordableish but on the expensive end, especially with complex issues. Also expect to wait six months for a specialist, in complex cases twelve months is not unheard of.
Medications get capped at $30, unless the government doesn’t agree it’s a useful med, then you pay full price.
