Ask Lemmy

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

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.

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.

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

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.

In Australia.

I went to the doctor complaining of weird headaches and vertigo, so she sent me for X-ray and MRI. They discovered holes in my bones that proved I have blood cancer (myeloma). Further blood tests proved that I was not long for this world and organs were failing, got pushed to the top of the list and sent to hospital the same day that the blood tests came back. At this point, treatment hadn’t cost me anything.

In hospital for four weeks with IV medications and chemotherapy, sent home with chemotherapy and a whole bunch of other tablets. Spent a year not responding to chemotherapy, told to get my affairs in order. At this point, treatment hadn’t cost me anything.

A specialist recommended a stem cell (“ bone marrow”) transplant, and then because it worked so well, another one six weeks later. In hospital for two weeks each time, with IV medications and chemotherapy. At this point, treatment hadn’t cost me anything.

I then spent 18 months taking chemotherapy tablets daily; these cost the government $28,000 a month; I paid $6.50 a month. Another twelve months on weekly immunoglobulins, which cost me nothing.

Six years after diagnosis, I’m now in remission (although “myeloma always comes back”). I’ve been two years with “no evidence of disease”.

I’m grateful and lucky that I live in Australia and have the public health care system. I would not have been able to pay for any of this in a country with healthcare-for-profit.

UK.
Visit to doctor: free
Ambulance trip to hospital: free
Broken arm: free
Pregnancy care, maternity, birth, etc: free
Cancer treatment, including multiple rounds of Chemotherapy, surgery, post-op care, etc etc: free

Prescription: about £10, but I get an annual fixed price unlimited pass which pays for itself in a month or three all the stuff I'm on.
Parking at the hospital: not free.

Dentist: not free.

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.

Canadian here... I had a boss who was American. He would often talk about how the American system was so much better then the Canadian system. This upset me but luckily I could go to the hospital and get my feelings checked for free.

UK

I got hit by a driver a couple of years ago. Ambulance to A&E was free. Triage and being seen was free. CT was free. Sling for broken clavicle was free. I had 6 weeks off work due to lingering effects of concussion - getting signed off by the doctor was free.

I usually see the GP once or twice a year for minor things and those visits are always free.

My partner's antidepressants are free. Therapy is free. Birth control is free.

In Scotland all prescriptions are free.

I can't imagine having to consider finances in the event of any health issues.

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.

Loved one recently diagnosed with cancer. Within a week she has a team of 5 medical professionals assigned to her to kill this thing. If she was in the USA, this would bankrupt the family.

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.

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.

My husband was extremely drunk and cycling home at 3am. Fell off his bike, smacked his face on the road and fell unconscious. Was picked up by an ambulance called by a good Samaritan who found him.

They put him on a drip, ran an MRI scan, found a fracture on his eye socket, told him he had a concussion, found some fibroids in his lungs (unrelated to the accident) etc. Was in the emergency ward for probably 12 hours until he was able to be discharged.

Got follow up scans and appointments looking at the lung, eye and concussion issue over two years until they gave him the all clear.

We paid not a cent for the whole thing. He did get a verbal lashing from me though.

On the flip side, I had to have elective surgery to remove a 17cm cyst because it was really, really uncomfortable. Because it's elective, it's not covered by Medicare. The quote from the hospital came to $22K and we had to pull it out of the home loan.

Location: Australia

Forgot to say that we both have ambulance membership which costs us $70/year. Without it, the ambulance cost would've been around $3.5K.

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.

Spain. I have private health insurance (it’s quite affordable here).

If you are dying, use the public services. They will do whatever it takes (under their material resources) to save you.

If you want comfort and probably reduce waiting times, go private. Public hospitals have long waits for anything that’s not immediately disabling/life threatening.

Example. My dad had a fall at home alone and broke his femur. He used his telemedicine device to call for help. When I got at his home, the paramedics were already there. They stabilised him, put him in ambulance and brought him to a public hospital. The same evening he had a titanium inserted. After five days in the hospital he was transferred to a recovery center.

Guess the cost?

Zero euros.

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 people delivering babies abroad. 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.

Australia

Two years ago, my dad slipped at the boat ramp and broke his wrist. He went in the local ER, presented the family Medicare card, and they worked right away to put his arm in a cast and prescribe pain medication to him. Nothing was paid out of pocket, and the card was just to verify identity, since nothing is really deducted or anything.

A few months later, he got stung on the ankle by a stingray (luckily the barb didn’t break in his leg,) and was driven to the ER by a step-family member he was able to peddle his bike to quickly. His leg was quickly put in warm water and got given antibiotics, and was admitted for a week stay. After 3 days, it was healed enough for him to voluntarily return home, even though the full stay was still there for assurance. Yet again nothing was paid out of pocket.

For general checkups and appointments, it’s a bit hit or miss, where sometimes you need to pay around $70 AUD, but for others it is fully subsidised. For example, a blood test I had recently was fully free, whereas my most recent dental appointment required payment.

The cool thing is that I actually found out through my MyGov account that Medicare emailed a notice telling me that they owed me $100 and a couple cents, since it was some sort of post-appointment subsidy. Pretty neat honestly, didn’t know at the time they’d even consider doing that.

There’s also a new tier of healthcare facilities which were and are still being built by the Albanese Labor government both last and this term, which are called Urgent Care Clinics, basically being mini hospitals for mainly physical issues like broken arms, cuts or other injuries, which are easy enough to treat. These were created to ease the burden on emergency departments of full blown hospitals, so as to allow more elderly and sick patients to get treatment with less delay.

From Spain here, the only things that you need to pay for is medicine if for example you need treatment for something and it's always pretty cheap as long as you are getting it because you went to the doctor. No need to pay for surgeries or anything broken, unless they are cosmetic of course, and you can call an ambulance for free too.

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 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.

Canada.

As someone else mentioned the current government is trying to make things worse so we can have American style hearth care.

Primary care can be hit or miss. For my own GP I have to travel a bit back to my home town to see them because it's a bit painful to find a new one where I'm at now. It also might take a day or two to get an appointment.

It is far from perfect but I'm incredibly doubtful that private health care would improve anything at all. I just don't think the incentives align that could allow for it at all.

GER. I barely go to the doctor so I mostly pay for others and I love to. I earn enough to choose to get private insurance but honestly that juet goes against my ideas of public and collective insurance.

And in the other side I had to get an MRT some time ago. It seemed urgent so I got an appointment right away and the whole process has cost me 0 extra.

Spain. It's free, as expected.

But quality have gone really down in the latest decade. To the point that I don't actually feel really protected by it anymore.

Waiting lists are getting ridiculously long.

For a regular doctor you go to get a note for not working a few days can take a week or more to even see them. A specialist could easily take a year to see.

For this reason even we have free healthcare, more and more people is paying private healthcare on the side.

Poland

My country may be poor backwards post-soviet hole, but social media and news present USA as Fallout-style post-apocalyptic dystopia.

Every member of my family has a family doctor assigned (it's the same one for convenience). This doctor reminds us about mandatory vaccinations and tips us if there are any diseases spreading (for preparation sake). If anyone is seek we can usually schedule visit within a week, and most standard medicines are fairly cheap due to governmental control.

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

Living in France

I know someone who had to get a liver transplantation. The surgery was costing something like 300000 euros ( around 350,000 USD ). She could never afford such surgery. She was flown by helicopter to the hospital and back on a around 3 hours trip. Did not pay anything...

I don't know what to say, I can't imagine it being any other way.

In Switzerland, it works like this: you choose your deductible, between 300 CHF (330 EUR) and 2500 CHF (2730 EUR) per year. Lower deductible means higher premiums and vice versa. A typical premium for a 2500 deductible might be 4000 CHF per year (4360 EUR). The insurance companies are private, and they compete, but, the insurance terms are fixed by the state by law - so it doesn't really matter which insurance company you choose. There is zero bullshit like in the USA where, once you need something, they go "ah well you see on page 32478234 of our terms it says you can get rekt, actually". If you need medical services, you get them. It is the law.

Insurance is compulsory. People who can't afford the premium get subsidies by the state. People who don't earn any money for any reason get the entire premium paid for by social services.

Hi,

(France) for a broken arm or a general checkup you wouldn't pay anything. Actually, for the checkup you would pay upfront (my doc takes 10€) and get reimbursed a few days later.

Don't be fooled, there are constant attacks on this system by the ruling class, they try and nudge the narrative a little bit every day, but it's so entrenched here I keep my hopes up that we won't let it go without a fight.

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

Canadian here:

Our successive conservative/neo-liberal governments have been getting our public services, including health-care, for decades now.

Getting appointments for anything is near impossible. To go to a walk-in emergency clinic now requires an appointment, if you can get one. Once you have a reference to a specialist, it takes over one year to get an appointment.

However, the government, in alliance with a private company, have set up websites where you cab easily get appointments in the private sector near immediately or within 2 weeks. If you have a good job you're most likely to have private insurance to cover the fees up to 80%.

Oh and the Canadian Medical Association, is in on the racket to privatize healthcare. And one of the largest Canadian corporations, Loblaws, who owns a major stake in the grocery and pharmacy business, started investing in the healthcare business as well.

As soon as we got public single payer healthcare, capitalism has been sabotaging it constantly to the benefit of the private industry.

i live in Canada and it's a constant struggle to keep it afloat, we have our own brand of braindead morons we call maple maga that actively try to sabotage it at every possible opportunity....

what we do have is pretty good for basic coverage, but it excludes mental and *most *dental, and you still need insurance through work for costs of medicine etc. that being said, all hospital visits, stays, and treatments receive no billings.

just 'getting' universal healthcare isn't enough, you have to fight for it, and you have to fight to keep it.

Russia

Everyone has free health insurance that covers all procedures, doctor visits, ambulance calls, and most hospitalization cases in the respective government clinics based on where they live.

General physicians are available at any government clinic as needed, regardless of where you are. Other specialists are only available at your main clinic and directed to either by GP or as part of a free 5-yearly checkup. You can book an appointment online, call into the clinic, or come in person to do so. GPs are always available on short notice, and you can get there without booking if you need urgent care. Dentists are also available without booking for urgent cases. Trauma units operate 24/7 and accept without booking.

If you're too sick to come in person, you can also call for a GP to arrive through a unified hotline, regardless of your current location, or even whether you have Russian citizenship or insurance for that matter.

The quality of care itself is highly regionally dependent, but mostly alright. Larger cities like Moscow and Saint Petersburg have it better, smaller, faraway cities have it worse. Queues differ significantly between places and specialists, and can be anything between 15 minutes and 2-3 weeks.

Private clinics exist, prices are bitey, but the quality of care is generally high. Work can offer private health insurance, giving free access to their services.

TL;DR all free (with some paid options), available to everyone, decent quality, acceptable waiting times.

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.

Uk. Im incredibly grateful for the NHS and regularly thankful we don't have the shitshow of medical insurance etc. However. We've had 15 or so fucking years of austerity so all public services are on their knees. The NHS are having a massive retention and recruitment issues. So in short you do get treatment, but may have to fight to not get fobbed off. Main issues are:

1. NHS try to make you go away cos they can't cope with more strain
2. Recruitment issues mean staff quality is poor
3. Lazy staff are hiding behind points 1 and 2 so that they can dodge work

So...atm it's the worst I've ever known it