this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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As someone living in a country with universal healthcare I truly do wish it was like people online make it sound to be. Turns out you got to wait for a long time to see a doctor and you have to pay for it. Obviously it wont bankrupt you like it would in the US, but it's not exactly free either.
Depends on the implementation. Every single EU country does it slightly different. Here in Romania it's 100% paid for via taxation, the only thing you have to pay out of pocket for is heavily subsidized medication if it's been prescribed, and wait times are actually pretty ok.
The downside is we don't have any of the fancy new toys in any state-owned hospital due to a lack of funding, which means more complex surgeries are riskier, the latest and greatest medicine doesn't exist here and Romanian doctors have to rely more on the basics.
It's all trade-offs.
In the UK they sometimes send you to private hospitals for routine stuff, hip replacements, cataract surgery, and then just pay for it themselves and only the complicated surgeries are done by NHS staff.
That's usually down to underfunding than anything else, though. The NHS, for example, is a shadow of what it was like 20 years ago, thanks to years of purposeful underfunding.
And the prupose of the underfunding is to create the conditions on which to sell a fully privatized healthcare system to the population.
Yep, and sadly to many it works really well. There are plenty of people in the UK that believe that we should just tear it down and put a private sector in to fund itself. Most of them are blissfully unaware that they earn below the average threshold, and with cost of living being what it is here, they would be absolutely fucked should they need treatment.
I'd say it's funny how Americans love some European approaches to healthcare, while some European countries have bought into the US system as an option - but it's frankly upsetting that people would turn their back on nationalised healthcare because some right-wing cunts want to underfund it...
I think most of those people you're referring to that are making it sound so good, are Americans who are pining for it. And rightfully so.
And anyone implying that there aren't wait times in the US are full of shit.
I love when you're concerned about something with your health, the Internet can't immediately diagnose it, and your doctor's next 5-minute-window is in eight months, and you can't just go to another doctor because that's a whole drawn out process changing your "primary care provider" within your insurance that...oh, it just went up again suddenly for no reason? Hope you're within that window to switch insurers...oh they don't deal with your new provider, time to cancel that appointment and find another one.
It's ok, this only will take you 2 months of phone-tag and broken websites and emails stuffed into the tiny space between work and sleep. (Remember all the offices are closed on weekends!)
Phew! You've done it! ...Next opening is in 8 months. :D
It's such a perfect and amazing system. We're so privileged to have the unbridled, uninhibited, envy-of-the-planet freedom we're gifted with personally by the blood of lots of our troops we send to die in far off lands over the decades or something like that. /s
(For their sacrifice BTW they get slightly lower wait times and better care....maybe....? Roll the dice.)
Also, don't forget that all of that is inextricably linked to employment (COBRA is unaffordable bullshit).
Fucking awful system.
Another point is that universal healthcare creates a free (or close to) baseline that private healthcare has to compete with.
If there's a free (or close to) option, the paid option has to be better to win people over to it. This can make overall healthcare better.
On the other hand, if there's no universal healthcare the private healthcare can simple be as bad as it wants. This can mean that overall healthcare is worse.
I think even if you aren't using the universal healthcare, your care is improved just by it being there.
Same. I live in Germany and used to live in the US (both with and without insurance). I would rather be here and support this system where everyone has access to Healthcare, but there is much I miss from the US. The care I got in the US (obviously stupid expensive) was better, easier and quicker. With that said, the care here is fine and enough and available for all but shouldn't be viewed through the rose colored glasses of americans.
I think it is a bit unfair to speak of rose colored glasses there.
There is many people in the US who simply cannot afford an ambulance being called for them, if they are in a serious health situation. The people that have "rose colored" glasses in this context are the people whose options are "any healthcare" and "no healthcare".
Yeah, I'm not sure it's fair to compare the insurance they got through their employer at $400 a month with the basic free tier of a system of universal health care.
Fair comment, but don't think that I don't know how it is. I lived in the US for 28 years. The first 19 or 20 of which I had no insurance of any kind and was also fairly poor. I know all about not being able to see a doctor when sick or hurt.
Not sure how long ago you lived in the US, but things have changed in terms of doctor availability and wait times in the past decade or two. Many people can't even find a GP because theirs retired (or stopped taking their insurance), and literally no other doctor near them that is in their network is currently taking on new patients. I'm not sure it's any better here anymore in terms of wait times.
It was about 8 years ago. So a bit of time, but not soooo long. I know how it was, at least in my area of the US, and it is worse here in most ways.