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.
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
Australia. A broken arm no fee. General check up - no fee.
Not in WA. $95 for a 10 minute GP consult, but you get ~$35 back from Medicare. It is usually a 2 week wait to get an appointment but a maybe 10 minute wait in the waiting room. Urgent care is ~$180, wait is up to 2 hours. Emergencies are $0 but wait times can vary from 5 minutes to 3 hours. I wouldnt want to do hospital care without private health insurance.
Oof yeah in fairness I’m low income so I get bulk billed! The wait time can definitely vary. The thing I find is that GPs seem to spread their time over various clinics now so if you want to see a regular one (which I do due to chronic conditions) it can be a wait because they’re only in a couple of days a week! That’s frustrating.
I find if I just just want to see anyone for something very routine the wait can be anything from a day to a week. That’s definitely got worse over the years - I remember as a kid being picked up from school sick and I’d be in with my regular GP the same afternoon 😅
Your urgent care is so much!!!? I’m in Vic. I’m not sure how it works there. Here we have after hour urgent care clinics (quite recent, they only started a couple of years ago and popping up more places slowly) and I’ve had to go to those twice and again, free. Which I think is for everyone because it’s essentially a don’t go to the ER, go to these clinics if you’re not actually dying lol. I think I waited about 1-2 hours there. The waits no fun obviously but I do like that those clinics exist now, less intense than the ER can be.
I’ve had to do hospital without private and yeah, it’s not great but I don’t know what it’s like in other countries so hard to compare there. I’ve also seen others in private and the biggest difference is getting your own room (and if you’re getting surgery obviously choice there, I’ve just never had to have serious surgery!) it still seems like a pretty awful experience.
Mental health public though is a disaster - I did it once very briefly as a teenager and then private (as a public patient, I was very “lucky”) as an adult. I’d never do either again but particularly public.
some insurance( a specific type of hmo) the ambulance is 75/use, and 200/ER visit. this doesnt include TESTS, or Rx, specialists in the er. im using one that has this, because i was earning just enough to not get subsidized healthcare from the state.
Crying in expat
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 resident: it is brilliant. HOWEVER the politicians seek to turn it into a private system by way of a thousand cuts and being paid members of various think tanks and even being on company boards.
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.
How come there is a market for private hospitals and clinics if the public system is as great as they claim?
Because unfortunately, in capitalism, right wing parties are legal, and when they get to government they enact policy of defunding and destroying public healthcare to promote their corrupt buddies’ alternative: private healthcare.
Tbf. The american system is fine if you can afford to pay. And you’re always welcome to private care in countries with universal care.
Of course! The ones paying for top medical insurance are being subsidised by all the people that can only afford the more basic care.
The money has to come from somewhere and it sure as Hell isn’t coming out of the CEOs bonus.
mostly fine, depending on the insurance you have. some insurance wont cover certain things over others, plus some will require long wait times before insurance kicks in, not good if you have sudden emergenc ysituation, or a very urgent thing like like symptom that wont go away. and out of pocket and deductibles is whole another problem.
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.
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.
You can do things for free or cheap but some things have so long waiting times, that you opt for private doctors, which can be somewhat cheap, at least in comparison with the US and because there is “competition” with the public system.
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?
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.
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
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.
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.
