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

[u/The-Lucky-Investor]

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

[u/FeInfantryCop]

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).

[u/Cadet_Stimpy → u/FeInfantryCop]

It’s good you’ve had the experience.

[u/FeInfantryCop → u/Cadet_Stimpy]

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.

[u/Cadet_Stimpy → u/FeInfantryCop]

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.

[u/FeInfantryCop → u/Cadet_Stimpy]

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

[u/Cadet_Stimpy → u/FeInfantryCop]

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.

[u/FeInfantryCop → u/Cadet_Stimpy]

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."