Universal Healthcare Doesn't Mean Waiting Longer to See a Doctor

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/universal-healthcare-doesnt-mean-waiting-longer-to-see-a-doctor/281614/




Opponents of healthcare reform have, historically, argued that we should be wary of imitating foreign healthcare systems because people in other countries have to wait longer to see the doctor. Cheaper, more universal care, the argument seems to be, comes with the tradeoff of slower care.

This is not necessarily true, according to new numbers from the Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan organization that studies industrialized healthcare systems around the world.

The organization surveyed between 1,000 and 5,400 people in 11 industrialized nations. The first thing they found is fairly well-known: American healthcare is mind-bogglingly expensive, as compared to that of other Western democracies:


***SNIP


But what's less talked-about is that we don't actually get better access to medical care for our money. People in many countries that spend far less on healthcare than the U.S. are more likely to say they can usually get a same-day or next-day appointment when they need it, and to say they can get after-hours treatment without going to the ER. This is true for countries that have single-payer systems, like the U.K. (though not Canada), and for many Western European countries that have multi-payer systems like ours.

[vi5]

1. Do people think we don't wait under our system?

My son is 8 and has had a lot of medical issues since birth. When things were urgent we got in right away, but when we had to call to get an appointment with a new specialist we've typically had to wait at least 2-3 months for an appointment, sometimes as many as 6.

And so Canadians wait slightly longer for appointments than we do but pay exponentially less. I'll take that trade off.

[xchrom]

2. yes, we have to wait.

and you find that out when you try to make an appointment that fits fits your schedule.

[vi5]

6. I wanted to have an elective outpatient procedure.....

and I had to wait 3 months to see the specialist, and then another 3 months to get on the schedule for the appointment. I get furious when people talk about waiting times under other countries healthcare systems.

[xchrom]

7. tell me about it.

just trying to schedule stuff with out taking an additional day off work is getting difficult.

[vi5]

8. I know. Hell even not factoring that in....

...For me I have a very flexible schedule that allows me to schedule appointments any time of day, any day of the week. I work close to home and to my son's and my doctors, and have flexbile hours. So those wait times I'm giving are without any other factors than "I want to schedule an appointment. LIterally give me your first available time slot." So I can only imagine that it's 20 times harder if you don't have the kind of flexibility I do.

One of the most upsetting things I've ever seen was when my son was doing an extended stay in ta children's hospital, and there were long term care kids there. Their parents often times couldn't make it to see them because of their work schedules so they would at times have to go days, sometimes even a full week before they could visit their child at the hospital. Forget how tortorous that must be on a parent/child relationship, how are you on top of that able to advocate for their care and talk to doctors and if necessary argue and fight with doctors (which I learned quickly is also a large part of our healthcare system, even when they have the best of intentions).

What I've been through with my son was difficult and my wife and I were thankfully barely able to keep it together through all of it. And we have all the resources that anyone can be expected to have in terms of flexible job hours, close location to lots of good doctors, great insurance from both our companies, and tons of supportive family close by. I can't even fathom how it's done without those resources.

[JaneyVee]

3. Same here. Made an appointment last summer for my 5yr old son to see

His doctor so he can be evaluated for an appointment at the neurologist. That was in June, his appointment was in September, and the neurology appointment is in January. Over a half year just to even see a doctor. And I have great health coverage through my union. Anything would be better than our current system, it can't get any worse. America is 38th in the world.

[laundry_queen]

4. I'm in Canada

and I'd just like to point out how long you wait varies wildly by region. When I lived in remote areas up north, we often did have to wait quite a while for a doctor's appointment - which is what happens when there are only 2 full time doctors in town, and they also run the ER at the hospital. The usual response from the receptionist at the clinic when you would say, "I don't want to wait until Friday, can't you find something sooner?" was "He's on shift right now at the ER, if you really want to see him, you can go there now and catch him."
That was a function of the difficulty in recruiting doctors that wanted to work in remote, freezing cold, areas. Those 2 doctors had to function in many capacities and were quite overworked (but they were very, very wealthy). Now that I'm in the 'burbs of a big city, I almost always get a same or next day appointment, and if I can't (like recently when my clinic suddenly found themselves short 2 doctors due to illness) there are a bunch of 24 hour walk-in mediclinics I can chose to go to.

So the Canadian average likely factors in a lot of areas that have problems recruiting doctors. And yeah, there's often a wait for specialists too. Typical wait I've found to be same as yours, although we've had a few times where it was less than 2 weeks. That's just because there's a shortage of specialists, not because of some function of the single payer system.

[vi5]

5. Good points

We have a ton of specialists here. Again, maybe not in our rural areas but in most urban/suburban areas there are no shortages. And those doctors aren't going to go away (despite what the scare tactics of the right would have people believe). If anything maybe more people will feel compelled to go into specialties to fill those gaps if there is more demand (Free market, right?).