Which country are you in and what’s a typical doctor visit like? How much? Wait time? Etc
I call my Dr.
I book an appointment. If urgent but not medically urgent to my immediate wellbeing I can get in in a week or so.
If urgent, but not emergency, I can go to a clinic or the hospital non emergency (hospital can have wait times up to several hours)
If emergency and severe or traumatic injury or life threatening - emergency at hospital. Triage assesses need. Last time I had to take someone it was maybe a 20 minute wait - they had been hurt pretty bad - got jumped.
None of any of the above will cost me any money.
An ambulance, though, costs like 75$ if it is not life threatening.
Canada.
The hospitals usually have a severity for triage. If you broke your arm your going to be waiting longer than someone with a sever allergic reaction. Which makes sense, some injuries can wait longer than others.
That part is normal in US emergency rooms as well.
Because, logic.
But since money interferes with logic in so many ways it seemed necessary to mention it.
Sorry. The “money” part didn’t actually factor in for me because I’m in Canada and it wasn’t on my mind. Doesn’t mean we don’t pay for it through taxes I just mean it wasn’t on my mind. I just meant greater severity should equal earlier service.
Yes. If I have to wait in the ER, I try to think of it as a sign that I’m going to be okay.
Extremely fast service, or people suddenly starting to be really really nice to you, means something very bad is going on.
From US and was visiting Singapore when I came down with a sinus infection.
Took the elevator from the government controlled housing to the ground floor.
Walked 5 minutes to the attached small community strip mall which consisted of cheap food options, a grocery/convenience store, and a number of essential stores including a small drs office.
Waited 15 minutes, saw the dr. Explained my condition, allergies and medication I usually take and went through the exam. We had to help look up some of the medication names.
Paid $35 for the exam. There was some confusion because I expected it to cost more and I asked about. They apologized and said that since I’m foreign I had to pay full price.
Walked across the mall to the small pharmacy. Waited 5 minutes for the antibiotics prescription. Paid maybe $5?
Bought some tea from the grocery and was better over a few days.
People from the US who travel and need healthcare know very well our system is the worst.
Guess you don’t get to Canada much. People that actually need fixed now head to the states and pay, and are usually impressed by the treatment, both personal and medical. It’s often life or death though, die waiting here or don’t.
Give them a call. Generally get an appointment within 2 days.
Get told to take paracetamol for 2 weeks and make another appointment if the problem persists.Drs are generally on time maybe 10 min behind but when I was in Australia they would regularly get up to an hour late.
Costs are generally subsidied by the national government so unless something comes up unexpectedly there is no cost. If something does then you pay a fee and your private health takes care of the rest.
Why do you have private healthcare?
Australia has a dual system of private and public health coverage.
You get access to public health services but as with all public health services things take time. If you have private health insurance you get a faster access to specialists. Public health doesn’t do stuff like dental or physiotherapy where private cover does.
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The Netherlands
I call my doctor, make an appointment the same day, go there, tell my story, get referred to a specialist or get meds or whatever, all covered by insurance.
Specialist: sometimes appointment within a week or 2, sometimes it takes a month. It’s covered by insurance, but there’s an own risk budget each year of 380 euros. So all costs up to that budget are paid by yourself, the rest is covered. But since I’m getting mental health care, I pay 380 each januari and the rest for the entire year is all covered. This year I’ve had a broken collarbone repaired with a metal plate with all the photos before and after, I had 2 bladder infections which needed antibiotics and I had food poisoning on holiday and intestand infection, which was all covered at home and abroad.
Insurance
I pay 180 a month. It includes dental and some extras like 9 physical therapist appointments.
Brazil:
Call an Uber, go to the hospital, grab a ticket, pass thru triage, called by name, show my id, triage decide which specialist to see, go to specialist waiting room and wait to be called by name.
Doctor examines me, ask for exams, maybe prescribe medication, do the exams, wait for result.
Back to doctor, prescribe medication, hospital provides medication (unless is something very uncommon, if so go to the pharmacy and buy it).
Call Uber, go home.
Total cost: Uber fare, usually about 6 dollars total.
Insurance is about 180 reais for two people, or about 30 dollars per month.
No need to call in advance and book.
UK. Phone local GP, no appointments available for ~3 weeks, maybe get a call back appointment in 2 weeks if I’m lucky. Alternative is to phone every morning between 0830-0900 and either not get through or be told there are still no appointments available.
I have found walk in pharmacists to be well educated (better than many GPs?!) and available without appointment so they’re usually my first port of call.
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
When you don’t have health insurance, I’d assume? Because the tax system is basically the UK health insurance so I’m not sure if it’s a fair comparison in that case (the amount you pay through taxes or to a private insurance company might be very different though, but then that’d imo be the number to compare)
Oh, that’s with insurance. How much you have to pay out of that amount is determined by what your insurance plan covers.
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!
Wow! I had no idea that was even possible for a 3 year old! Glad she’s OK!
French here. when sick, I use an app to book a appointment to a medical center I have that’s like 5 minutes away by foot ( not typical for all french residents but I am quite lucky with where I live). I usually have an appointment in the next 2 to 4 hours tops. Depending on what it is, I walk away with a prescription and certificate for work stating how many sicks days I have. This costs me nothing, appart from the occasional optional medication that is not reimbursed.
This feels like a joke.
Like, just name all the shit that is wrong with the US and flip it joke.
Comparison, my wife wasn’t feeling well and insisted on going to the Dr. The closest appointment was over a week away, and the Dr. told her to go to the ER instead. Took a 25 minute drive to the nearest ER in the city, got her vitals in a few minutes and then waited hours to see a Dr who basically gave her 2 cups of coffee and some Tylenol and then had us go home. We won’t get the bill for months, but it’s usually in the 800 dollar range, and that is with insurance.
I’m in the US if that wasn’t obvious.
That’s depressing, I can only imagine what it’s like to ponder wether or not to get checked because you can’t afford it…
My general rule of thumb, if there isn’t a significant risk to life, limb, or senses in the next 24 hrs, I’m not going to the ER.
I don’t go to a GP ever. They stole my blood and piss, and then told me to come back in 6 months and did it again. The headache of setting up the appointments, rescheduling work, travel, and copays means it just isn’t worth it.
Finally, if I have an injury, and it’s still affecting my daily life 3 days later, then I go to urgent care, and sometimes that even feels like a waste of money. Cost 180 bucks for me to get a pinched nerve in my shoulder diagnosed (couldn’t sleep for 3 days) and they prescribed me maximum strength acetaminophen and some steroids which blew my heart rate up to unsafe levels so I stopped taking them. Pain finally went away about 4 days later on its own.
Same here, but sometimes there is a day or rarely more (when everyone is sick in school in the winter and your kids bring it home to you for example), so you have to wait or get an appointment with another doctor (we usually go to the same one). In these rare cases I usually wait when I know I don’t need to go to the doctor but I need the work-paper so I get paid.
Also you can always call a “flying doctor” (they come by car 😁) or go directly to the hospital if you feel it’s an emergency. There is a semi-urgent phone number you can use to sort out your options too if you don’t really know.
I have used them all BTW.
United Kingdom (Bristol.)
Used to be pretty decent, but now the NHS is chronically overbooked and underfunded. Ambulances can take hours to come.
Only way to get a GP appointment is to literally call my practice at 8AM on the dot, wait in the queue and hope you’re lucky to have your call answered before all the appointments are gone. There is no online booking system, and if you call at any other time, they won’t be able to book you in advance unless you’re willing to wait months.
My dad (80 years old) has had to go to hospital a few times in the past few years for various reasons, and the longest he’s had to wait to be admitted into a ward was 13 hours. He had a hip replacement operation two years ago where he was on an 18 month waiting list.
Portugal
If it doesn’t require immediate attention I call my health center. I can get an appointment with my family pshysician in a few days or, if it’s more urgent, some other doctor will see me the same day but I’ll have to wait there until one is free (can go anywhere between 15mn and 2 hours). I’m lucky though, some health centers suck really bad. The ones in big cities are generally better.
If it’s more urgent I call the national health line and they’ll A: tell me how to treat it myself B: set up an appointment in my health center (or another if mine is not available) C: send me straight to the closest emergency room.
Wait times in the emergency room depend on the gravity and the hospital. My hospital sucks. Low priority you’ll spend there the whole day, easy. 10+ hours. Medium priority you’ll wait 4 or 5 hours. High priority about an hour, maybe two. Very high priority (head falling off) you go right in. In good hospitals those times are much lower. In the major city I used to live I never waited more than 2 hours for any priority. I also had surgery there and it was great.
Never paid a cent, I think it goes without saying.
Canadian here. My son just had an ear infection that was lasting 3 days. On the 3rd morning we called our doctors office to have it checked. They were able to squeeze us in at noon. Took him, and they couldn’t tell if it was viral or bacterial, so suggested we wait and see if it clears. Didn’t clear after another 2 days, but it was the weekend now. Called 811 and they contacted a medical center to make us an appointment in the morning. Next morning (Sunday now) office called us, made an appointment and saw him again. This time we got a prescription for some antibiotics.
I’ve taken a course about anti-microbial resistance and I understand that doctors are instructed not to go with antibiotics first thing so it didn’t really bother me to go back a second time. It was nice they it was easy to be seen again even if it wasn’t with the family doctor.
in my city (southeastern Brazil) we have two facilities for public healthcare: the emergency center (UPA - unidade de pronto atendimento, emergency medical unit) and the family health center (UBS - unidade básica de saúde, basic health unit)
at the UBS I can see a doctor or a nurse, get prescriptions, get referred to specialists and exams/tests, IST tests, and so forth, if I’m not in meed of urgent care
at the UPA I can be treated (rather) quickly if I’m in an emergency
a few weeks ago my uncle had a heart attack. it was nothing serious, thankfully. we called the ambulance and in 5 minutes they were here, he was treated quickly, sent to another city nearby for emergency catheterism and angioplasty, and he paid a total amount of zero reais for everything
I love SUS (sistema universal de saúde - universal healthcare system)
Canadian here.
This one time 10 years ago I drove to my family doctor’s office without an appointment and got lucky that it was a walk in day.
I saw my doctor within an hour of arriving and it cost me nothing.
Hey! You better check if your family doctor is still there and say hi. At the minimum get a tetanus shot.
I have seen my family doctor many times since then. No worries.
If it’s urgent, I go down there. If not, I schedule an appointment (how soon usually depends on the severity. Can be the next day, or the next week).
Example: My oldest kid (12 years old at the time) fractured his arm while in school last spring. I was notified right away, so I picked him up at school and took him to the local clinic (3 minutes away) . The doctor wanted some xrays done, so he referred him to the local hospital and gave him some painkillers for the one hour trip (we live kind of in the middle of nowhere).
We arrived at the ICU (it was after “office hours”), so we had to wait 30 minutes for the x-ray tech to be available. Turned out a titanium rod insert was needed, which requires anesthesia, so they couldn’t do it the same day because of fasting requirements. Operation “scheduled” for the next day. He was given a temporary cast.
Day arrived, and while there was a bit of wait since it was something they’d just have to insert into the schedule for the day whenever possible. Surgery went according to plan, and he was given a sandwich upon waking up, as he hadn’t eaten since the day before. He had a new cast on that he had to keep for a couple of weeks. The local clinic could remove it, but they wanted to do it at the hospital so they could do a follow up xray to see that it was healing properly.
A few weeks later, and things looked good. Cast removed.
A couple of months ago he had the titanium rod removed without much ado.
My only expense was the fuel cost for driving to the hospital.
The only negative feedback I have is that my son didn’t get to keep the titanium rod as a souvenir after they removed it. I guess the doctors have better things to do than washing gore off of scrap metal.
Germany. It has gotten worse over the last decade regarding waiting times but for regular appointments it might mean waiting 1 week to almost a year. Less, depending on your urgency or precondition. Usually it’s still OK.
Regarding the finances it’s still great in international comparison. I was resuscitated and taking quite a lot of medicine and am not broke but you still (might) pay a (very) small part on hospital stay and regular medication. Compared to.the full price on both that is neglegible though.
AMA!
In short: you go to the doctor based on medical requirement and not Financials. You call the ambulance whenever urgency is needed.
