Ask Lemmy

Canadian here:

Some provincial governments are purposely underfunding healthcare in their provinces in order to make it worse. The purpose behind this is to try and push for more private healthcare. They figure if everyone thinks the current healthcare system sucks, it's easier to sell them on private. I'm fucking tired of this shit. The world is just full of greedy selfish assholes.

EU here, I was pregnant and gave birth both in Germany and in France.

In Germany, the overall cost was 0€. It included monthly follow ups with a gynecologist, many blood exams and echos, the birth, MUCU for baby for three days, hospital stay for both of us for four days, at home visits for ten days, monthly visits with the gp for a while. Health insurance is through your work, so you pay for it via taxes but significantly less than in the US (I think my partner and I were paying just under 200€/month? It’s a percentage of income) I had 3.5 months of maternity leave at full pay, then I could stay home longer with 60% pay for up to a year cumulative with my husband.

In France, the overall cost was a bit higher (~50€) because not all blood exams are completely free, so over the first 6 months of pregnancy I payed less than 10€/month for some blood tests. Gp and gynecologist visits are free, so are the ecos and the hospital stay. I decided to pay a little extra (50€/day) to have a private room after the birth where my husband could stay overnight. It should still be conferred by my extended health insurance (not mandatory). I was also in sick leave for the white pregnancy, and for the first 3 months I had full salary, then it dropped to 1/3, the got back to 100% when I went in maternity leave (~4.5 months). I decided to stay home a bit longer, without pay. My husband can also choose to stay home without pay, and has one month of paternity leave.

I also lived in the US. Incomparable. On top of not having to pay, when there is a charge it is always stated clearly upfront, while in the US knowing what you’ll have to pay is a wild guessing game. Overall: I moved back to Europe for a reason.

Swede here, a doctors vist costs 300sek, though any public medical cost above 1450sek is 100% covered by the government.

This includes prescriptions, hospital visits, and more.

Back in 2019, I got mycoplasma, I was out of work for 1.5 months and stayed in a hospital for 3 nights, I paid 500sek or so for the hospital stay, this included hot meals and medication.

I got sick pay from the government, and got back all vacation days I burned at work.

UK.

There were complications when my wife gave birth. 2 weeks in hospital, some surgery, and nurses and midwives on call 24/7. The biggest cost was me stress buying snacks for my wife (until she told me to stop!). Even parking was reduced to £11/week, since she was in for multiple nights.

Another occasion. I had a benign lump in an annoying place. It took 14 months to get through to get it removed. It's only when I went in I realised it was not a 5 minute snip. Around an hour for a plastic surgeon to properly remove and stitch it up.

The NHS has its problems. Mostly caused by previous governments trying to starve it (to let their mates sell us for profit healthcare). The system and staff are absolutely awesome.

If I'm asked to point out what makes me proud to be British, the NHS is the prize jewel in that particular crown.

Cost wise, we pay national insurance, a fixed percentage of income. ("Payment by ability, treatment by requirement.") Prescriptions are £9.90 each, or £120/year. They also wave the fee for a lot of groups who might have problems with it. It's massively more cost effective than the American system.

Brazil

We have a weird hybrid system. While the universal care is not known for its efficiency, and sometimes sick people will have to wait for hours to see a doctor, I am sure it beats having to mortgage your house because of a broken arm.

Besides universal care, people can decide to pay private hospitals and doctors directly. It's expensive. Few people can afford it (but interestingly, still much, much cheaper than in the US). And then, all of this combined generates affordable and actually good health insurance plans. You get a mix of getting guaranteed care, with a typical insurance monthly fee, which also most companies provide for their employees. Of course there are many tiers of insurance plans, but the most basic and affordable ones are typically very good. It's rare for insurance companies to deny procedures, something that is completely different than in the US. (It happens, though, depending on the procedure).

Either way, you never have to worry about what it'll cost you. No life changing charges, no astronomical bills.

Australian here.

Just took my wife to the ER twice this weekend. Stressy.

Blood tests, consults, medication, drip, snacks and drinks, the lot.

$0

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

UK here, NHS is constantly being underfunded and gutted by contracting out to private companies, it still works but just barely.

For example, ambulance target response time for a cardiac arrest, not a simple heart attack but full on unconscious not beating not breathing, used to be 8 minutes or less. Now they aim for 20 minutes and only achieve that 60% of the time.

I'd much prefer a Norwegian style model where you pay say £30 per doctors/non-emergency hospital visit up to a cap of £150 per year with those who can't afford that getting those fees paid for by the government.

Some additional things I would add would be a slowly increasing VAT on private healthcare until it reaches double the normal VAT, paying student nurses/doctors a full wage and full living cost loan for the duration of their studies, whilst working they do not pay the interest on those loans, then if they move abroad before the university loans are paid back they have to pay the interest back as well.

This would massively increase funding for the NHS by taxing those who can definitely afford the burden because at double VAT the only ones who'd still opt for private healthcare are those who employ workers and therefore no matter how much they try to wriggle out of paying tax they can't avoid this one.

The second would increase the number of medical students and stop the current drain of young medical professionals leaving for other countries.

American here on Medicaid, I expect it's a lot like that.

Canadian here.

All my prescriptions are paid out of pocket but it's not very expensive. 4 different pills is around $300 to $400 a year.

All tests and lab work are zero cost as is doctor visits.

Here in Nova Scotia, we have a doctor shortage so Registered Nurses were assigned their own clinics. Imho, my nurse is giving me better care than any doctor I've been to. They take the time to listen and are very knowledgeable. Doctors just want you in and out so they can see any many patients as possible in one day (it's how they make money in a private practice).

Wait times at the ER takes longer than it did pre-covid. I had an issue years ago. All the walkins (I didn't have a GP at the time) were full so I went to the ER Saturday morning. I was back home within 4 hours and that was after waiting at a pharmacy to get the prescription filled.

Two years ago, same issue came back. My nurse told me I had to go to the ER. After 4.5 hours I went home without seeing anyone. There was a total of 6 people in the ER's waiting area. Two days later someone from the hospital called and asked me why I left.

Today, we can go to a pharmacy and be treated for a number of conditions without taking up resources at the ER.

Norway. Far from perfect, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

There is a bit of a wait for non-critical stuff, but for the most part that's OK. It's technically not free: costs around 30$ equivalent to see the doctor for anything not critical. Not sure why; I think it's mostly symbolic.

My kid broke his arm last year and got a titanium rod inserted into the bone. The only expende was that I bought a sandwich while he was in surgery.

I used to live in the US and now I live in Denmark. I recently fell off my bike and got hurt. I went to the non-ER hospital and had some x-rays, an ultrasound at a specialists office, got a sling, and some nominal amount of ibuprofen/paracetamol/cut cleanup thrown my way. Then had a follow up with a specialist and got a little PT as well.

$0. It's unreal as someone who has experienced injury in the US. I got amazing care in a pretty timely fashion and didn't have to worry about going broke

Australia here.

I'm going to start off with this since most Americans I have spoken with don't know it: You can have private health cover on top of the universal healthcare which subsidizes dental, glasses, private hospital cover, maternity and prosthetics etc. Important to note, private cover still gets the benefit of the universal health care. For example, about 18 years ago having a voluntary c-section in a private hospital without health cover was ~$5k, but you would be covered in a public hospital or if your private cover took care of x%. For that $5k my wife and I had a private room with a queen size bed and I was also covered for meals for 3 nights. That's also when I realized my private cover didn't have maternity care, oh well.

Private cover also gives you a tax rebate.

Last year I went to doctor with a sore thumb that wasn't getting better after a week and a half (fell on it when sitting down on wet grass). Private practice, after hours, had to pay the gap fee of ~$80 for which I got a partial rebate back into my account next day. He examined me, wrote up up two scripts and told me to get an x-ray and ultrasound with urgency first thing in the morning.

I called up, made a booking while driving to work, and quoted what he said. By 10 am I was getting the scans. By 3pm I got a call that they had set me up to get an MRI at a private hospital for 8pm that night. Total cost? The $80 gap that I got partially refunded. I ended up going with a top rated private plastic surgeon since I had coverage but I could have gone with the public system and gotten fixed up. I ended up getting a tailor made splint at a private clinic during recovery and found out that way my private insurance didn't have prosthetics, so I ended up ~$180 out of pocket.

As another example, about 10 years ago my grandma was going through chemo. A pensioner ,no health insurance, she paid ~$20 gap for a months worth of medication. I looked up the unsubsidized price and it was the cost of a small car ~30,000. That is a result of the PBS (pharmaceutical benefit scheme) where the main lever is, the government negotiates the price of medicine, and then subsidies it. The standing agreement is that you can't charge more for a class of drugs that the lowest provider of a similar medication. Numerous Australia-US free trade agreements have tried to water this down but its always been a hard no, its a beloved system and even our conservative government knows it would be political suicide if they ever tried to weaken it.

Really importantly to understand is also the safety net. If your out of pocket costs for the public healthcare (gap fees etc) exceed a threshold for the year, those gap fees start getting additionally covered between 80-100% (depending if it is in hospital or out of hospital care.) And those benefits start coming in after you are only $594.40 out of pocket.
https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/how-medicare-safety-nets-and-thresholds-work?context=22001 https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/what-are-medicare-safety-nets-thresholds?context=22001

I'm Norwegian, where you have to pay about $30 to go to the doctor (which is set to $0 after spending $150 in a year).

I'm not sure about a broken arm, but I think it's free.

I live in Denmark now - the only difference is that there is no cost with going to the doctor.

Its great in Australia, i farkn love medicare (what we call it). My wife had a recent health scare and we had to run around seeing all these different people (getting scans done, follow up appointments, second opinions etc) and it was amazing walking out each time not needing to pay anything.

We have to pay for meds but its cheap as chips (my meds for my heart shit are like $20 each pick up).

I really feel for you yanks, its insane America of all countries doesnt have it.

In Sweden, on paper, everybody has the right to receive health care, even if you're not a citizen. This is humanitarian and beautiful. On paper. While I wouldn't trade it for what you have in the US, our system has some serious shortcomings. For example, because of the long waiting times, we had to come up we the term "health care guarantee", which is a guideline to health care providers that states, that they have to provide health care within two or three months of the application date. Since it's a guideline it's practically meaningless and some people have had their health irreversibly damaged because they didn't receice surgery or whatever in time. Another example are the birth giving refugees. Some clinics and hospitals are so taxed, that they cannot make room for one more person to give birth, which has lead to some infamous cases where people gave birth in their cars, on their way to a neighbouring country to deliver their baby abroad. Yet another example is how the physicians are trained to treat patients. While overdiagnosing and overexamining definitely is a thing and a fact in the medical world, our doctors far too often recommend us taking pain medication "walk it off", instead of actually examining. You rarely get a CT, yet alone an MRI, and if you do, you have moths for it.

EDIT: trans specific healthcare is years behind. Again, on paper, everybody is accepted and we have our pointless pride parade, but when you actually voice your concern or need for gender affirming health care, you have to prove your dysphoria to a bunch of specialists, which takes up to five years. If and when they decide to diagnose you with gender dysphoria, then you are eligible for HRT or whatever you need. Once you get the diagnosis, the state pays for any and all gender affirmation, which is good, but the journey is murderous...

EDIT2: Certain workplaces cover both examination, treatments and medicine.

UK.

If you go to the hospital the only thing you have to pay is for the car park (assuming you were driven there).

Prescriptions cost £9.50. Or you can pay £120 for an entire year of unlimited prescriptions if you require lots of different medications.

The charge is waived if you are disabled, a student or long term unemployed.

The national insurance we pay also pays for:

Redundancy pay, sick pay, maternity pay etc.

Canadian here: wait times can be long depending on seriousness but it honestly doesn’t register. You need emergency care, you go to the hospital, you get taken care of, you leave. No fees. It’s not perfect efficiency but it works.

UK, the NHS is barely limping along but I'm still glad we have it. If you really can't wait private is still an option but I've never felt the need to even look into it. Everything's free at the point of care, it just gets paid via taxes

Belgium here.

Doctor is 5€ or so, but your general doctor can't do almost anything but prescribe things or refer you, which is enough for most general sicknesses.

Then you have to go to the hospital for a scan or follow up, usually within the same week, or you can go to the emergency room for something like a break and they will see you immediately (of course, like in the US, you will often have to wait an hour or 3 depending on the time of day). Then for all the tests and everything it is usually <100€, for me I have never had more than 50€ but I haven't had a break where I had to get immediate care.

Specialists take a long time to see otherwise, often months, but from what I hear from friends in the US, the wait time is usually longer there.

In Spain, if you pay all your taxes you are covered for everything for free. Issue with it is that the system is overcrowded, so people who can afford it pay for private health insurance

As an example, I pay 220€/month for a family of 3 and we are covered for everything, except dental.

Germany. A fucker broke my arm with his car driving reckless. I paid nothing. 3 days of hospital, a surgery at my thumb (ligament tear) and several physiotherapy sessions. I also wouldn't have had to pay anything if it had been my fault. The idea behind this insurance system is, that they want you to go to work again as soon as possible. Because they also pay out sick pay. Your company pays for the first 6 weeks, then it's the insurance.

UK here. Last year I spent four months in hospital with a moderately obscure neurological condition called Guilian Barre syndrome, half of it in critical care (some sedated) and much of the rest in a specialist neuro-rehab unit. My partner had a foot amputated two years ago after spending several weeks in hospital with blood poisoning caused by an infected foot ulcer, they now had a prosthetic leg and have had physiotherapy and psychological counselling (they recognise it's a big life change). We're both disabled, and my partner has dialysis three times a week. I take 11 prescription pills a day (plus three non prescription magnesium recommended by a physiotherapist). Nurses are generally friendly and caring (if understaffed and overworked), and the doctors don't have the adversarial money-driven approach I hear about from the US, plus they're often some of the best in the world - my partner got one of the world's leading podiatrists because they happened to get his rotation!

Total cost for medical care: £0.00 plus some petrol and taxi rides - being registered disabled I don't even pay for prescriptions but if I did it's, I think, £12.50 a time no matter how many pills you're collecting.

The NHS is not flawless: recently my partner had a day surgery that turned into a week as an in-patient as the second part of the surgery kept being pushed back (some for good reasons like the Accident and Emergency department having a sudden glut and needing all the surgeons, some for less good reasons); wait times in A&E can be as much as 12 hours on uncomfortable (but easily cleaned) seats if you're not an emergency and you show up at a busy time like Friday night; and waiting lists for adult ADHD diagnosis was seven years (so I went private cos I could afford it). It also don't fully cover dental work (and finding an NHS dentist is notoriously difficult), and if you have a complex prescription it doesn't fully cover glasses either, but it does contribute to both of those bringing them down to merely expensive rather than ludicrous.

But when you really need it, it's there, you will get good care, and you don't have to worry about being bankrupted.

Would recommend, 9 out of 10

Norway

General checkup: 2-3 weeks waiting time, cost 120-360 NOK (~20 US gallons)

Broken arm: Trip to ER, waiting time 0 minutes to 4 hours depending on pressure. Travel costs are reimbursed. Cost 0 NOK. (0 inches of coin)

Eye surgery: Few months waiting time. Travel costs reimbursed. if it was a surgery that was necessary to prevent severe handicap, cost is 0 NOK. If it is surgery to just remove the need to wear glasses, you'd have to pay the thing. Roughly 35000 NOK (3800 Fahrenheit)

NZ:

Doctor visit is fairly expensive, but very dependant on whichever government we have in. Between $0-45 per visit, kids are always free up to 18 years old. Kids meds are free.

ER is free, any meds prescribed from a hospital are free.

Dentistry is free up to 18 years old, excessively expensive after that.

Generally injuries are covered by ACC, so specialists related to an injury are also mostly covered.

I spent 28 days in hospital 3 years ago, including helicopter transfer on day 1 and two weeks later ambulance ride to a bigger hospital. Got surgery on my lung and various other procedures. Total cost $0.

Canada. You don't pay for a broken arm or a checkup. You only pay for things like physiotherapy or massage. Dentisit is covered if you're old, young, or not making much money. Pharmacy is covered (with a small fee) if you're old. The emergency room works on a triage system so, if you're not seriously sick, you'll probably wait a long time. There are long wait times for specialists in some areas. I can't speak for everyone, but the care my extended family and I have received has been excellent.

Australia.

I don't think about my health. Like, at all. If something is wrong they'll deal with it.

Not broken an arm, but I broke my leg in a car crash, air lifted to hospital and a couple weeks stay, $0.

Brazilian here. You just go to the nearest UPA (many general clinics around town) and get your arm patched up. Sure, there will be a line.

Onde I cracked my head and went to one, they didn't let me wait, in 30 min I had the stitches already

Slovakia here. It's pretty liberating, TBH. Even despite trying to stay healthy and vital, one will eventually get sick or injured and will need help. It is nice that it is already paid (by taxes) and we can just get the needed care without fear of of ruining ourselves financially. Also meds are pretty cheap or free for patients.

The system is set out in the way that it is better for state that patients be healthy, because patients' sickness is state's expense. So state tries to limit its spending while still providing reasonable care. Although, it is hard with the population getting generally older (more serious, and so expensive, illnesses) while we still have only very limited medicine to reverse aging.

I am wondering how the universal health care system affects humans proactivity for preserving their health. But from what I have heard, it is unfortunately low in both cases 😕

What's it like to go to doctor?

Well, annoying. Something is wrong in your body and that's never fun. And then they need to do some procedures that also usually won't feel nice.

A broken arm, for example, probably means some kind of painkiller pushed into my muscles with a syringe. That hurts. And then I'll be needing a cast. Meh.

This answer sounds kind of banal... But this is proably about what you did expect(?)
And I don't know if I'd have to pay. Never broken an arm. Probably nothing. Or maybe many tens of euros? Definitely not over 50 €, though.

I'm in Finland, but this should, by all logic, apply to pretty much the whole of not-USA.

Scotland, the getting to the doctor is variable. Many GPs are overrun with patients. Same day appointments are pretty much if you're lucky or if you have an actual emergency. If you just want a checkup, most of the time you can get an appointment within a week or two (or at least at my GP).

Hospital referrals can take ages, once again if it's serious or urgent you'll be seen, but otherwise it can take a very long time (like I had them get back to me 2 years after I got the referral at some point for something). You also don't know how long is the queue in front of you.

It's very variable though, I lived in a different town before and there I could walk in to the GP an be seen the same day after waiting 1-2 hours every time. That was before Brexit and COVID though.

Cost wise, all free (other than taxes). Any prescription you just walk into the pharmacy and get it for free.

The specific tax for this is around 8% (not strictly true as it covers other things than just healthcare though, like unemployment and other social benefit stuff). That being said, you get the benefit even if you are not paying the tax, students, unemployed etc.

Nz here. Broken arm, go to emergency room, will cost about $50. Hospital would be free. General visit, probably $50 too, prices went up recently. Lower income is subsidised so cheaper if you can't afford much. Wait times are up to a few hours in ER and it's triaged on urgency

Our family public health insurance in Germany is 12.5% of your income. There's minimum rates for people who make very little income, but it does cover your household and dependents.

Checkups, illness visits, and initial consultations are free. I had a specialist visit with a cardiologist and it cost zero.

The dental only covers basics. The cost on extra dental is way less than it was in the US for basics.

In the US our good company insurance cost $1200/month, and even then we'd have $3k/year deductables. Oh, and every visit not in the annual checkup was a minimum of $170 out of pocket. Specialists would be $400 out of pocket per visit.

Seeing a non-emergency specialist in Germany can take months. Of course, it was the same in the US, so whatever. Both countries could be better, and should work to improve services available. I'd take Germany's system any day over the commercialized mess that is the US commoditzing and charging people to live.

If you come in with blue lights over your head it's great. For non urgent stuff it sucks.

Tried to book an appointment, they did not pick up the phone. Tried calling someone else, they told me to call the place I was registered at (the ones who did not pick up). Cost would have been something like $20 had I bothered to have it looked at. Capped at something like $300 per year.

I have not had to try the urget care (yet) but I know people who have had stroke, cancer, complicated broken bones, who are as good as new and not bankrupt.

You have a problem, say an accident, even one you are yourself to blame.

You or someone else calls an ambulance, you go to the hospital, you get help, then you go home and life continues.

The total absence of problems and even thinking about cost is very much quality of life and means smaller problems get fixed before they get really expensive for you and in effect for society.