r/FluentInFinance • u/The-Lucky-Investor • 11d ago

“Medicare for All” would save the U.S $5.1 Trillion over 10 years Discussion/ Debate

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/30/easy-pay-something-costs-less-new-study-shows-medicare-all-would-save-us-51-trillion
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u/Pickle_ninja 11d ago

In America:

Person with a fever of 99.0F (37.2C): Get back to work.

Person with a fever of 100.0F (37.7C): Stay home take some cough syrup.

Person with a fever of 101.0F (38.3C): Stay home take some cough syrup.

Person with a fever of 102.0F (38.9C): Stay home take some cough syrup.

Person with a fever of 103.0F (39.44C): I'm going to try cooling down with a bath.

Person with a fever of 104.0F (40C): I think I should go to the hospital.

Person coming across a Person convulsing on the ground with a fever of 105.0F (40.55C): "OMG! CALL A $10,000 AMBULANCE!"

In Countries with Universal Health Care:

Person with a fever of 99.0F (37.2C): I'm going to see a doctor.

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u/Secret_Squire1 11d ago

American having lived in Europe and the UK.

No it’s more like having to wait several weeks to be seen by a GP to be told to go home and take Tylenol while resting. I had my foot run over by a car and was told the same thing.

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u/Cadet_Stimpy 11d ago

It takes months to get appointments in the US now too. It’s not a socialized healthcare issue, it’s a medical professional shortage issue.

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u/AggravatingDisk7237 11d ago

I just got seen same day by my GP. They do walk-ins 8-6 everyday.

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u/reptilesocks 11d ago

Good for you. In NYC my past two PCPs had a month-long waitlist.

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u/AggravatingDisk7237 11d ago

I have friends in London who literally joke if they get sick they won’t be seen until next year. I don’t know why people try to say the USA is anywhere near that.

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u/etharper 11d ago

The clinic I go to has walk-ins but you're not going to see a doctor, you'll see a nurse practitioner. In fact i haven't seen my doctor for months, all I ever see are physician assistants because my doctor is booked out months ahead.

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u/AggravatingDisk7237 11d ago edited 11d ago

It’s a clinic homie. You really need to see a licensed doctor? If you have something that extreme go to an urgent care or the ER dude.

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u/Bucket_of_Spaghetti 11d ago

Yep - NPs are fully qualified to treat majority of patients that come in to a walk in clinic

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u/Mastershroom 10d ago

If you have something that extreme go to an urgent care

I work at an urgent care clinic; almost all of our providers are PAs or NPs. We literally have one actual doctor that I know of.

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u/AggravatingDisk7237 10d ago

Then go to an ER. It’s called emergency room for a reason. You’ll see a doctor there.

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u/networkninja2k24 10d ago

Cost you 2k with insurance and 15k within lol.

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u/AggravatingDisk7237 10d ago

Then go to urgent care it’ll cost you $80.

Y’all just wanna complain so bad for some weird reason even though you have what’s recognized as the best advanced care in the world for many aspects. People fly in from all of Europe to get advanced care in the USA

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u/networkninja2k24 10d ago

Bro took my daughter to urgent care. It was $180. Lmao. Stop throwing random numbers. When she was 2, took her in for infection in to ER. It was $2800 deductible with insurance. My response was you talking about ER and then flipped to urgent care cost lol. ER is not the same as urgent care. Urgent care visit was all wait and for nurse to say she doesn’t have strep throat just keep giving Motrin. $180 for wait and nurse to say go back home lmao.

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u/AggravatingDisk7237 10d ago

Dude i said 80 and you said 180 and you just had a fit. Grow up, you get my point.

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u/networkninja2k24 10d ago

Do you have comprehension issues? I literally told you I recently took my daughter to urgent care it was 180. Come on man lmao.

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u/Kat9935 11d ago

My current one I can get in the same day for everything except like annual physicals and that type of stuff where you schedule it a month in advance. My old Dr you couldn't walk in but you could call and if it was something pressing they would typically get you in as they left several slots a day for someone who had a serious issue that couldn't wait a day or two.

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u/Cadet_Stimpy 11d ago

Congrats. I’ve lived in Florida, Texas, and now Virginia and the only time I’ve had a same day appointment with a PCM is if I got lucky and someone canceled last minute. Both my mother and grandmother still live in Florida and tell me it also takes them months just to be seen.

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u/FeInfantryCop 11d ago

Bad luck then. I'm in Texas and it's same day GP appts and next day if you want not end of day walk in. Specialists are like 2 days for me and that includes back surgeon, neuro surgeon and my cardiovascular surgeon.

Now if you mean initial appointments for a SPECIFIC doctor then yes those can take a month or 2 to wait for an initial appt but even then that's only for really well known doctors and for the initial appt. Once you're an established patient those appts are days away. And if the wait time is too long you just ask for next available and it's that same week. But again that's for people who aren't establish patients (establishing patients is a much longer appt time required).

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u/Cadet_Stimpy 11d ago

It’s good you’ve had the experience.

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u/FeInfantryCop 11d ago

I mean there's is a reason alot of Europeans/Canadians come here to see specialists. Their wait times can be astronomical and not even be approved if not life threatening. TOS was a surgery I required and I met A TON of Euro/Canadians who came to America to get the procedure due to a year plus wait times and the same cancelations or denials we complain about but even worse.

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u/Cadet_Stimpy 11d ago

And a lot of people closer to the southern border go to Mexico for procedures because it’s cheaper and the wait times are typically shorter. You should know that being from Texas.

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u/FeInfantryCop 11d ago

You mean botox and dental work? Yeah that's normal and also has advisory due to how many infections arise from Mexican surgery crossings.

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u/Cadet_Stimpy 11d ago

Meds and GP/PCM appointments as well.

I’m not sure what your end goal is. I’ve experienced months long waits myself. I had an appointment with a specialist for next week that was just canceled and pushed back to late July due to staffing shortages. This ain’t some figment of my imagination I’ve made up to argue with people on Reddit.

Here are some sources with facts about the current and future healthcare shortage:

https://www.aamc.org/news/press-releases/new-aamc-report-shows-continuing-projected-physician-shortage#:~:text=According%20to%20new%20projections%20published,to%2086%2C000%20physicians%20by%202036.

https://www.oracle.com/human-capital-management/healthcare-workforce-shortage/#:~:text=One%20study%20projects%20that%20if,more%20than%204%20million%20workers.

Just google “healthcare shortage” and you’ll see that there already is a shortage that is projected get worse, no matter how quickly the turn around for appointments with your GP are for you.

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u/FeInfantryCop 11d ago

Healthcare shortage is literally international. It is a huge influx of population with no increase in doctors being graduated. But we still have faster wait times than Europe and Canada. The NHS had to have a law enacted due to 6+ month wait times for CANCER patients. There is literal panels to determine if helping patients is a good use of their limited resources. We do not have that here.

Even our longer wait times is much shorter than Europe or Canada. The average wait time to see a PCP for a NON EMERGENT appointment is less than 2 weeks NATIONALLY. Europe is seeing closer to 14.5 WEEKS to see a doctor. We have it much better here and that's with the issue of running short on Healthcare professionals.

EDIT to add the NHS' History of wait times.

"What matters to individual patients is the time spent waiting. NHS England has an elective care recovery plan to eliminate long waits. Median waiting times stand at 14.5 weeks and only 58% of people are being treated within 18 weeks, so further action will be needed. Eliminating the backlog and restoring waiting times to 18 weeks will be very challenging. The achievements of the early 2000s, when waiting times were brought down from 18 months to 18 weeks, shows it can be done. However, this will require significant investment alongside sustained focus and effective supporting policies."

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u/AggravatingDisk7237 11d ago

So weird. I have family in Florida who don’t have that issue. Specialists are incredibly hard to see but not just general urgent care etc.

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u/Cadet_Stimpy 11d ago

I’m not talking about urgent care. My grandmother isn’t going to be seen at urgent care for her hearing, her general checkups, knee replacement consultations, etc. Now if she falls and breaks her hip, then yes she can go to the ER. But healthcare isn’t just for when you fall and break something.

I’m figuring that everyone bringing up urgent care in these responses only goes to the doctor when it’s an emergency? I had a cousin who did that and he died of cancer because they found it too late. That’s why checkups are so important.

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u/AggravatingDisk7237 11d ago

Me or anyone i know have never had trouble on our regularly scheduled checkups. We schedule in advance and then schedule again when that appointment is over.

My wife needed to see an oncologist for a concern that came up at her yearly physical, the best cancer center in our state got her in NEXT DAY. And that by the way is a cancer center people fly in from Europe to go to because the care is that much better.

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u/Cadet_Stimpy 11d ago

Well I guess if everything is going so great for you, then my grandma and mom must be making up stories about long waits for healthcare. I’ll just tell them to DM you so they can get your docs contact info. They’re in the panhandle, where are you located so I can tell them to get on the wait list there?

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u/AggravatingDisk7237 11d ago

My advice would be to call around! Should be a few specialists that will take their insurance.

I don’t mean to discount them it must be based on the area. I only mean to say don’t compare it to European countries because I’ve heard first hand if they need to see someone now, they literally won’t get in until next year.

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u/cjthomp 11d ago

Some areas have shit for medical availability.

Just because you're having a good experience doesn't mean it's universal, and unhelpful advice like "try calling around!" is very tone-deaf.

"Have you tried just not being sick?"

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u/Bucket_of_Spaghetti 11d ago

But everything you just described for your grandmother is preventive care (check ups, hearing, consultations) - those things aren’t urgent and are intended to be scheduled in advance. An annual physical is annual - just schedule it a year out each time you see the doc for your current physical. A knee consult can be scheduled months out unless it’s causing chronic pain, in which case go to urgent care for pain management and schedule your consult in the meantime

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u/Cadet_Stimpy 11d ago

No one said anything about urgent or emergency. The original comment I responded to insinuated they had to wait weeks to see a GP in Europe. I’m saying I’ve had to wait months to see PCMs (same as GPs), as well as specialists, in the United States.

Can you all decide if waiting months to see a PCM is normal or not? Because apparently it’s not in countries with socialized healthcare, but so many of you want to tell me it’s normal in the US.