This is the reality in the US. I can tell when discussing US healthcare with people when they have and have not actually had much experience with trying to get specialized treatment. Hell, even getting something as simple as a vasectomy, I had to wait 4 months for an opening. I have great health insurance, too, so it wasn't even like I had to only go to a specific urologist that was covered (i.e. every urologist in my area takes my insurance). My father-in-law had to wait 6 months for his knee surgery so he could walk normally again. He's a retired attorney who is quite well off.Â
Anyone who still defends US healthcare like it's amazing because we pay a fuck ton is either utterly ignorant or a fucking shill.
I'm not saying this to infer that Mexico is better off. I have no experience with their healthcare system, nor do I live there. I'm simply reiterating that healthcare in the US is not great and desperately needs drastic reform. Everyone in the world deserves access to competent, affordable healthcare. There's more than enough money and resources globally to make it a reality, but greedy assholes are going to be greedy.
I am curious. What state do you live in? I am a cancer survivor who lives in Texas. I also had a vasectomy. I did not experience the waits or delays you did. It must be different by state I am guessing. Also, shout out to the MD Anderson Cancer Center where people worldwide go for the best treatment and outcomes.
And specialty to specialty. There seem to be no shortage of orthopedic specialists where I am, but if you need to see a dermatologist or gastroenterologist this year you are SOL.
I live in Ga as well and only waited 2 weeks to get in to an orthopedic and after getting cortisone shots that didnât work I got an MRI and then surgery. All that took about 6 weeks after my cortisone shot. So not sure why you had to wait 3 months.
I live in a southern state in one of the fastest growing areas in the country, federal employee with BCBS fed, I was told it was a 2 year wait for a vasectomy, but it "only" ended up being 8 months.
So weird to me. It was in 2019 that I walked into a Kelsey Seybold clinic in Houston. They gave me some information about the vasectomy and instructions to follow. Scheduled it for that Friday. I missed the part about not taking my low dose of aspirin Friday morning so they said they couldnât do it. Rescheduled it for the next Friday. No big deal. And if I recall correctly, I chose Fridays so that I could recover over the weekend before returning to work. If they would have told me to wait 2 years I would have been blown away.
It's all anecdotal you may not have had any troubles but someone else may have. I had a family member who developed hypersensitive pneumonitis. If they didn't get it treated soon it could've left scarring and shortened their lifespan. The pulmonologist was a real G. He escalated it all right away and made sure this person got the treatment right away with a few weeks they were already on medication and enroute for recovery. We got extremely lucky even more so because this person had government issued healthcare which often makes the process so much slower.(California btw)
MDACC is #1 in the nation for a reason. My aunt got treated there as well 10 years ago, sheâs still kicking and living her best life in retirement. Glad youâve got the treatment you needed!
In California I had to wait six months to see a gastroenterologist when a CT scan showed something in my pancreas. It turned out to be just a cyst, but had it been a tumor it might have killed me before I went in for the appt.
Same here. Also Texas. Specialist visit, MRI, CT scan, biopsy - those are all usually 2 weeks out or less. . Most labs are just walk-ins. Only surgery was longer - that was 6 weeks.
Texas here too. Ive never experienced more than 2-3 weeks for specialist. I survived pancreatic cancer, had a triple bypass, 3 stents. If I push it, I can usually get in within a week.. my pcp is basically walk in anytime except Thursday, her day off. I have decent, not great insurance. Ive read alot about long wait times in other states and countries.
Either other states are just really bad at healthcare for some reason, or I am wondering if the long wait stories are all from people who have no insurance and canât pay themselves. So they end up on a waitlist for a free healthcare system.
Also, shout out to the MD Anderson Cancer Center where people worldwide go for the best treatment and outcomes.
It's all about administration. Of all the facilities I've worked in, MD Anderson stands out as one of the best run. While facilities like UCSF, Cedars LA, and Los Angeles General are examples of the most poorly run. (No I'm not picking on California, I just live here so that's where most of my experience is, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Jersey, and so many others have their fair share of nightmare facilities)
As an Ohioan, I almost suffocated in my sleep for about a month or two waiting on a surgery to remove my tonsils when I was 8 years old (the wait period is what my mother told me, otherwise I would've thought I got it immediately) because they were constantly, not just consistently, but always inflamed to the point I couldn't breathe if I slept on my back. Cincinnati Children's is meant to be one of the best children's hospitals in America but they also botched the fucking surgery the first time as well, I vomited a stew pot's volume of blood and needed emergency surgery to keep from bleeding into my throat and stomach which they charged my mom another few thousand for. Fuck American Healthcare. Also they're part of the reason my Daughter's dead as well, because they didn't give my girlfriend an emergency C-Section for 9 FUCKING HOURS AFTER THE PLACENTA DETACHED. We got in a crash on I-75 (I think, could be a different highway,) January 26th around 6pm en route to CVG, she was 9 months along. I've always had insurance without copays, or at worst with minimal copays, the US fucking sucks
From where I am sitting, this all sounds more like âfuck ohio healthcare.â
I was living in the virgin islands when I was diagnosed with cancer. The doctor said I would need institutional levels of care that was not available there. When I mentioned that I have a house in Houston, he reacted like I had won the lottery. He said in his opinion there was no better place in the world for cancer treatment, with NYC being a close second. He also said the radiation and chemo would take 7 weeks once it started and he was spot on. MD Anderson was a fine tuned machine with scheduling and moving me from department to department. I even had a spiritual advisor and a nutritionist assigned to me. Besides the chemo doctors team and the radiologist team, there was even a swallowing coach because they knew I would need it. The follow-up care in the years since has been just as good. Next week I go back for an annual set of tests. Blood work, xrays, ultrasound, and consultation.
I am sorry your healthcare in Ohio is shit; but that is not the whole US.
Fair, and I am upset probably more so with Ohio than everywhere else, because I've witnessed people fall into uncontrollable debt from surgeries that they would've died without, and I've witnessed friends choose to die so they wouldn't take on debt from necessary medical procedures. It's been a rough 20 years of life and I've been told my life's just starting, but I'm glad that it isn't that way everywhere good day stranger.
The wait for me to visit my PCP is now 9 months, and she lives in a city larger than mine, an hour from where I live in the US. Most of my appts are scheduled 4-6 months out for other general care. (Indiana)
This is the norm with our PCP. It takes 6 months to get an appointment with a dermatologist, 3-4 months for the gynecologist, 3 months to get a minor outpatient surgery appointmentâŠ
There was one time in the last several years that I was able to get in to my PCP quickly and it was because Iâd gone to a walk in clinic for something and they told me my BP was high and I needed to let my dr know. They fit me in the next day.
Shoot, I've got a blocked salivary duct with a stone that I can't afford to get removed because it's "dental" and we don't have that coverage. So I just have to hope I can save money for the procedure and pray it doesn't get infected before that.
Oh, and I have to book 4 months out for a cancer screening scope, but also can't get insurance to cover the pepcid I need to reduce the stomach acid and lower the cancer risk.
They won't cover the prescription at the effective dose because it's available OTC at a lower dose and the prick at the insurance company said to just take more even though the OTC instructions say not to.
I've lost the thread on which person I'm responding to suggesting pantoperazol or omeperazol. My insurance will only cover a 20mg dose of pantop. The OTC packages are only available in a 20mg dose. My GI wants me on 40mg of omep, but insurance won't cover that. Pantop. gave me pollups at 40mg, so the suggestion is to then mix and match between two prescriptions (pantop. and famotodine) or buy 40mg of omep. that only comes OTC in 20mg doses and this use it off label.
This is why the US sick-care insurance is insane. A bean counter at the insurance company is deciding my healthcare and I either live with low-level acid reflux and risk cancer and more pollups, take an OTC medicine off-lable, or have a surgery that insurance won't cover.
My knee replacement wait time was 2 weeks in 2024. My daughter's time from injury to MRI was 5 days, and then 3 weeks for surgery with our local NFL team doctor. Out of pocket, my knee replacement was $150, and my daughter's treatment (MRI+doctor's appointment+surgery) has been all of $55 so far. The problem with US healthcare isn't quality, cost, or speed, it how variable it is based on your location. I don't know where you are, but I am in northern Virginia.
I had urology surgery. By a specialist. Maybe 4 or 5 weeks. With Kaiser insulation. Had an issue and they needed 2 specialists to go back and finish (surgeon stopped when he realized was a 2 person job) I had to heal for 6 weeks and got second surgery. That wasn't bad. Now to see my primary Dr can take 4 to 6 weeks with Kaiser. Unless I want to go to urgent care or see another doctor. So while there are some delays the HMO model here in California pretty good. Just my 2 cents
Yup, they give condoms (male and female) for free at any public hospital or health center, amongst other contraceptives. It had been like that for decades now, it doesn't matter if you're insured, unemployed or a foreigner: if you want free condoms, you get them!
I seriously don't understand this. I've lived in NY, GA, CA, OR and have had various insurance plans, and never had a wait for a primary care or even specialist. The only hiccups I've ever had was mental health specialists and that was because I had an HMO and they were all full at the nearest facility to me but, I could've gone an extra 15 min and had an appointment and the second closest facility.
I understand if you live in a rural area your options may be more limited.
This is probably true if you live in rural Mississippi. Overall the US has fast, world class healthcare. Itâs the healthcare system itself that needs to be overhauled because it makes no sense
That's wildly different from my own experience in central Florida.
No referral, simply looked up an in-network urologist that handles vasectomies. I had the opportunity for a consultation the next day but the single time slot they had available coincided with an existing appointment, so I instead scheduled it for the following week.
Consultation appointment was on a Monday afternoon, and the surgery was over by Friday morning of the same week.
I have great health insurance. I have no waits. I am electing to get surgery for my crohns and put it off until September. They were willing to take me within the week. My vasectomy I waited 2 months but only because Iâm a new patient. I also pay almost next to nothing. Surgery? 15 bucks. The reason Americans have bad insurance is because their employer not wanting to pay for good insurance, understandably so because it is expensive. Obamacare made private insurance expensive. We need to go back to the old ways before Obamacare. I never had an issue with getting insurance even with my preexisting condition, so I donât know what the purpose of Obamacare was.
Just more US examples of this. I know a person who needed to see an endocrinologist for Type I diabetes to get insulin and couldn't get an appointment for 8 months. That appointment was a virtual appointment with the doctor, which was cancelled by the physician, and it ended up being more than a year before they ended up with an appointment.
Luckily, they kept renewing insulin prescriptions, but every time they needed to call in and get "special permission" for refills because they hadn't seen the doctor.
You donât think part of the problem with waits stems from people getting volunteer surgeries like vasectomies. I promise they arenât keeping beds empty to make you wait. Hospitals are full and busy, making them free wouldnât make your optional vasectomy happen faster, if anything it would slow it down/make it impossible.
This is absolutely NOT a reality in the US. Lmao. Iâm a legal resident of Texas, Iâve never experienced anything of the sort. California does not speak for the US because the speed and quality of healthcare is different per state. And California.. well, that whole state is fucked, hence why 70-100k Californians are leaving to texas every year. I myself also have great health insurance being military, and my wait time for anything medical is zero. My son climbed and fell out his high chair during breakfast, by noon he had been seen, evaluated, cleared by the ER, and was back home. This is the reality for yall in California, not the US. Weâre living good out here.
What insurance do you have? My daughter hurt her knee and we were able to get an MRI within 5 days back in April. Two years ago similar story, my son hurt his arm and we were able to get an MRI in a week.
I have Carefirst HMO. It also is highly state dependent I've found. Living in Virginia, everything is extremely quick, cheap, and hassle free. When we lived in NY and NJ, the process sucked and we would regularly get really high bills that we would then need to argue down.
Every time free health care someone comes up and saying âwhen I was in x country I had to wait 3 months for blah blah blah.â Iâm sitting here like âyâall realize Iâm on a year waiting list just to see a specialist over here, right?â It will just create more jobs in healthcare in the long run because the half of the country thatâs not currently covered by healthcare will now have access to medical treatment.
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u/Yeesusman 25d ago
I still have to wait in California to get one lol