America is hell

  • tymonOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    11 months ago

    I’ve had a cough for the last two months that’s given me a hernia. Can’t go to the doctor. It’s fun here.

    • jarfil@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      11 months ago

      That sucks. Here in Spain I’m free to go to the doctor, she’ll tell me “sorry, we only have 10 minutes, you can get another appointment for next week and we’ll continue”… but at least it’s something.

      • reverendsteveii@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        11 months ago

        doctors only have 10 minutes in America, too. They need to see as many patients as possible and make as much money as possible for the practice. The difference is that in American that 10 minutes costs you 12-20 hours worth of work to pay for.

        • jarfil@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          11 months ago

          From what I’ve heard, US doctors don’t see that much out of that money either, but here at least they take it out of our taxes… which, somewhat interestingly, are at about the same rate as in the US.

          • SkepticElliptic@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            11 months ago

            The u.s. government spends more on healthcare per Capita than any other country as well. They give money to private insurance to cover people on public assistance such as the elderly and veterans. They don’t pay directly, so there’s a ton of administrative bloat.

            If we could just cull the insurance companies we could harvest their organs and solve a lot of problems.

      • Infynis@midwest.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        11 months ago

        In the US, they would never even consider giving you ten minutes as a walk-in, and the next available appointment would be three months from now

        • Remmock@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          11 months ago

          3 months?! That’s impressive. I’m waiting until December for an appointment I’ve needed since March.

          • ZzyzxRoad
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            11 months ago

            One time I had to schedule a doctor’s appointment so far in advance that by the time my appointment was coming up, I knew it was going to conflict with my final exams. The semester hadn’t started when I made the appointment. When I rescheduled, it was going to be another five months. So I said fuck that, and that was nearly two years ago. Not sure what the answer is supposed to be.

          • Stormyfemme@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            11 months ago

            Only 10 months to go for me for a preliminary consult for a surgery to alleviate chronic pain wooooo

          • reverendsteveii@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            11 months ago

            when I needed a new PCP because I finally got insurance after a decade of just hoping nothing went too badly wrong, I ended up having to wait 8 months after 3 local practices weren’t accepting new patients at all.

          • spicycupcake@discuss.tchncs.de
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            11 months ago

            And our mental health services are horrid too. A friend has been on one guy’s waiting list for a couple years. They finally were just recommended a few other therapists and have been on their waiting list for a few months, though maybe soon…

        • jarfil@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          11 months ago

          I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s far from all rosy in here. Specialist visits are hard to come by, I got one for next year, and only by calling over and over to check for any cancellations, got lucky to have it moved to next month. Still got another one for next year, no luck moving it so far.

          But otherwise GPs are like that: 10min visit every week with an appointment, or a home call if you got a documented history, or… well, as a walk-in you either go to the ER, which gets everyone through triage right away, but after that can take hours for someone to see you (some even have died waiting, mostly during the pandemic), or have to wait until the last appointment at the local clinic.

          It’s been getting somewhat harder over the last couple decades, and they keep trying to do some cuts to push for private insurance, and some services are still not covered (like optician, therapy, or dental only covering extractions) but so far the GP and ER are free for all and reasonably accessible.

      • SkepticElliptic@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        Ha, I went over my 10 minutes during a phone appointment one time, by about 90 seconds. They charged me an extra $75.