Comment by taeric
8 days ago
My question was to ask if we are really that much different than other places? Because, I've heard anecdotes of similar situations from everywhere. And, indeed, the link I posted calls out that the US is basically typical for most things.
And fair that flu or something shouldn't need emergency room, but there are also urgent care clinics that are good for that sort of thing. And the few times I've had to call my doctor, I got through just fine.
Which is all to say, in a distribution, you expect variance. I've largely always found myself on the low end of these distributions, so I'm curious what the distribution is.
And I fully cede that we should continue to strive to get better.
> And, indeed, the link I posted calls out that the US is basically typical for most things.
We are typical in wait times and outcomes.
We pay 2-3x as much as the rest of the developed world for that.
https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/health-spending.html
https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/2024/06/society-at-a-gl...
We have been restricting the supply of medical professionals in the USA since after WW2. Our medical schools have been keeping supply lean by being below what our population needs.
> there are also urgent care clinics that are good for that sort of thing
It's also worth noting that visiting Urgent Care clinics is getting more and more expensive, with insurance covering less and less of it. It's frustrating, because they really are a convenient system.
It's too bad, because Urgent Care is your only option if you're still waiting for your "new patient appointment" with a primary care doc. I was in the same boat as GP poster, where new patient appointments were 6 months in the future, so we just went to Urgent Care for everything in the meantime. Of course, after 6 months, we found out the doctor was retiring and not taking any more new patients, so we had to wait another 6 months for the next primary care doctor on the list. An entire year of waiting, just to get a primary care doctor, in the non-socialized-medicine USA.
Fun fact: Urgent cares owned by hospital chains can be substantially pricier, too. In my area:
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/getmedia/80e07f2b-b8a4-44f0-b...
> A hospital-based urgent care clinic is a clinic that is owned and operated by a hospital… Services provided at hospital-based urgent care clinics must be billed in the same way they would be billed if those services were provided at the hospital.
"My question was to ask if we are really that much different than other places? Because, I've heard anecdotes of similar situations from everywhere. And, indeed, the link I posted calls out that the US is basically typical for most things."
Yes, it's typical with the addition of being insanely expensive and cost is totally unpredictable even with insurance.