Non-Americans, what's it like when you're sick and need to go to the doctor?
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
i just go
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Yeah, I'll pass sitting in a small room with more sick people.
Don't you think if this was an issue we'd have addressed it by now?
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
France, not a big city. If I'm sick. I call the doctor office, in another city because all doctors here have no places. I may book an appointment in two or three weeks. If I really need a doctor, I can book an appointment to "sos doctor", that I will pay for a part (and part healthcare), or go to a non-vital emergency doctor at night, which is expensive (for a doctor in France) but reimbursed by healthcare. I can have access to this because I'm still in/near a city.
The waiting time in a doctor office can be long, depending if they take time for their patients or not. I'm ok with that. If I have an appointment to my usual doctor, I don't pay or I only pay a little part which will be reimbursed minus 1€ (50/year max). There are doctors with exceding fees, like "sos doctor", those feeds are out of my pocket. Most of the time, we have healthcare AND private insurance, but there is a health insurance for poor people.
For medecine, most of the times we don't pay anything but there are fees, 1€/medecine box (50/year max, but not the same as the 50 for doctors).
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Dont forget you can write sick threw phone call now
Yeah but you need to go there once a quartal to give them your insurance card. So if you are sick less than that you still need to go every time.
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Don't you think if this was an issue we'd have addressed it by now?
Call ahead and schedule an appointment saying you are sick and need the AU for the employer?
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Yeah but you need to go there once a quartal to give them your insurance card. So if you are sick less than that you still need to go every time.
Ah ja stimmt
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
Canada, I make an appointment with my family doctor, usually within a week, free. Specialists are more annoying because our right wing provincial government keeps chipping away at public healthcare and justifying it with its own results, but generally goes pretty quick too.
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
United Kingdom, Dorset.
My 3 year old daughter was vomiting and not keeping liquids down. Phoned the non-emergency line and after a bit of a wait, spoke to them and went through the script.
Was told to go to A&E and we would be expected. After a short wait there, was led down to the children's ward and she was given a bed in her own room. She was put on a drip, had antibiotics and kept in overnight. By the end of the following day she was able to keep down water and some toast so was discharged.
Had a follow on call from a GP the next day, she was back to normal in a couple of days.
Cost: £0 (I contribute to the NHS through general taxation)
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
East europe:
Just use government level 2fa to sign into a health portal and send a message about your problem. It usually is answered within a few hous and you either get prescription or a checkup in a few days. If a specialist doctor is needed, wait times can be up to a year, unless you go the evil hypercapitalist route and pay them the price of happy meal to get a visit at a private clinic.
All procedures are free or practically free.
ER now costs like a tenner cause idiots would not fucking stop wasting their time with things like "oh I have a tick" and "oh my kid sneezed once" -
Sweden.
A few alternatives:
- I could book an appointment at the local health center. I would probably get a time at the earliest next week, and it would cost me $30. Health center doctors are generally quite overworked, and can sometimes be a bit dismissive of your issues in my experience, but they will help you. If you need specialist care, they will give you a referral, which could take several months depending on the priority of the case and the type of specialist.
- I could use an app to get access to a video call with a doctor, after having described my symptoms in the app. I would get a video call the same day and it would cost me $30. Given the remote nature of this kind of contact, they can be a bit limited in what they can do for you, but will try to help you regardless. If your case requires in-person examination, they will ask you to go to a health center instead. If you need specialist care, they will give you a referral and you'll have to wait the same amount of time as for a referral in the health center scenario.
- I am lucky enough to have a private health insurance plan through my employer. If I have any problems, I'll submit them to this private health insurer, and they put a human on the case and connects me with a specialist right away if the problem warrants one. Typically this happens the same or the next day. This costs me nothing, apart from what I pay in benefit taxes to be on the private health insurance plan.
All in all, things work fairly well in Sweden, but having gotten private health insurance has definitely jaded me a bit on account of how much better the experience is when you have that. If only the public system wasn't systematically underfunded and run by the dumbest politicians on offer in the country, then maybe everyone could have great patient experience.
Does these costs count towards the högkostnadsskydd? (cost ceiling)
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Dude shut up this comment was so unnecessary
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Does these costs count towards the högkostnadsskydd? (cost ceiling)
Yes, but there are two different ones - one for medical appointments and one for medicine.
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United Kingdom, Dorset.
My 3 year old daughter was vomiting and not keeping liquids down. Phoned the non-emergency line and after a bit of a wait, spoke to them and went through the script.
Was told to go to A&E and we would be expected. After a short wait there, was led down to the children's ward and she was given a bed in her own room. She was put on a drip, had antibiotics and kept in overnight. By the end of the following day she was able to keep down water and some toast so was discharged.
Had a follow on call from a GP the next day, she was back to normal in a couple of days.
Cost: £0 (I contribute to the NHS through general taxation)
That sounds kind of scary, did they actually get to the bottom of what happened or was it just "Hey, she can eat toast now, you're free to go!"
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United Kingdom, Dorset.
My 3 year old daughter was vomiting and not keeping liquids down. Phoned the non-emergency line and after a bit of a wait, spoke to them and went through the script.
Was told to go to A&E and we would be expected. After a short wait there, was led down to the children's ward and she was given a bed in her own room. She was put on a drip, had antibiotics and kept in overnight. By the end of the following day she was able to keep down water and some toast so was discharged.
Had a follow on call from a GP the next day, she was back to normal in a couple of days.
Cost: £0 (I contribute to the NHS through general taxation)
This has been pretty much our experience too when our kids have been ill, except they didn't have their own room but a small ward.
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Which country are you in and what's a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
Honestly depends.
If it's life or death urgent, an ambulance arrives, takes you away and with any luck, fix you right up. Visitors will likely have to pay to park at the hospital, and that will be your biggest expense. When my dad had a cardiac arrest, it was during covid, so the parking was free. The biggest expense was cleaning his blood off the carpets and putting their cat in the cattery for a week.
If it's something non-urgent, and the cause isn't immediately found by a doctor, then you might go on a waiting list and be seen in a few months maybe. And even then it might not get sorted. It's not like House.
The most annoying bit is the 8am phone roulette to try and get an appointment.
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That sounds kind of scary, did they actually get to the bottom of what happened or was it just "Hey, she can eat toast now, you're free to go!"
Yes it was gastroenteritis, luckily she bounced back quite quickly!
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This has been pretty much our experience too when our kids have been ill, except they didn't have their own room but a small ward.
Yes I think we got lucky with the room, perhaps it was just a quiet period
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Honestly depends.
If it's life or death urgent, an ambulance arrives, takes you away and with any luck, fix you right up. Visitors will likely have to pay to park at the hospital, and that will be your biggest expense. When my dad had a cardiac arrest, it was during covid, so the parking was free. The biggest expense was cleaning his blood off the carpets and putting their cat in the cattery for a week.
If it's something non-urgent, and the cause isn't immediately found by a doctor, then you might go on a waiting list and be seen in a few months maybe. And even then it might not get sorted. It's not like House.
The most annoying bit is the 8am phone roulette to try and get an appointment.
If he had a bat would you put it in a battery?
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We do also get money taken directly out of our pay check for health insurance. So it isn't just the 5 euro fee. But I think it manages to be considerably less, since everyone is required to have insurance. I think that brings down the cost for everyone.
This is what absolutely kills me about the people around me in this country....
The owner of a company has an idea of your total value, your "compensation." They factor in the cost of healthcare in that calculation, so we're still paying for the insurance and yet so many people see it as "their company pays for it, if we had universal healthcare then I would have to pay a tax!" ... mother fucker you already pay the "tax" for a much worse, more expensive system where people still aren't covered...
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United Kingdom, Dorset.
My 3 year old daughter was vomiting and not keeping liquids down. Phoned the non-emergency line and after a bit of a wait, spoke to them and went through the script.
Was told to go to A&E and we would be expected. After a short wait there, was led down to the children's ward and she was given a bed in her own room. She was put on a drip, had antibiotics and kept in overnight. By the end of the following day she was able to keep down water and some toast so was discharged.
Had a follow on call from a GP the next day, she was back to normal in a couple of days.
Cost: £0 (I contribute to the NHS through general taxation)
Overnight stay at a hospital here in the US is at least $3,000 / £2.196 / €2.552
