this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
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Is that even really true to begin with?
My thought exactly. Specialists are booking months out.
I'm not from the US but once I was in Orlando and took a friend to the hospital cause she wasn't feeling well, she had insurance. We waited 4 hrs to even see a doctor, I have never waited that long even in public hospitals in my country
That’s because ERs are the only way poor people see doctors in the US. Since we can’t go see a GP without insurance and a copay, we wait for the stomach pain that could have been treated to turn into sepsis from a gaping ulcer and then crowd into the ER.
You guys should have rioted decades ago, I feel sorry for you, animals live better than (non rich) americans
I'd say nothing is more important than your health and you already lost that. You have people dying and suffering while waiting on healthcare.
I mean, you live in fear that one accident that injuries you or a family member will ruin you financially (and emotionally) for life, that isn't living to me
americans have pussified/pacified by anti-healthcare propaganda for decades.
I waited from 6pm to 8am when my doctor's office opened, and then talked to them to determine if I needed to be there (yes, I should have been seen/treated, but now they could see me in the office).
Only one patient was taking from the waiting room in that time.
The US health care system is baaaad.
And almost any specialist is months for a first visit, even for issues that that are life threatening.
That's insane, though I had something similar. I studied there for a year and at one point I dropped a bed on my toe (dont ask), hurt a lot, got all purple and I was pretty sure it broke. I found out in the US I cant just go directly to an orthopedist, even though its obvious I needed one, so I scheduled a general doctor. Long story a bit shorter: by the time I got an xray done, my toe had already calcified lol
i waited that long in public subsidized healthcare, i think they forgot me one time, when they put me in a room, i dint see anyone for like 4 hours because they forgot.
Can't even sue them? Isn't that the national past time in USA?
it was a public hospital, subsidized by the state. the only truely rude experience was from the nurse that hung up for no reason, because she was expecting someone else. it wasnt a chronic thing, and it wasnt like the experience with an hmo doctor.
Yep. God help you if you need a specialist because he's likely to respond faster.
I called my primary for my annual checkup, they can't get me in for 2 months. It's getting bad out there
Compared to European countries, no. Compared to Canada, yes.
Elective surgery means surgery that can improve quality of life, but is not otherwise life saving right?
Canada also has the lowest number of doctors per 10k, and the lowest wait for primary care.
The US has more doctors, but the highest time to primary care.
I don't know many elective surgeries that can be scheduled without a primary care referring the patient to the surgeon for consult. Not to mention, beside plastic surgery, it's usually a case where the patient has no idea they could benefit from the elective surgery.
That graph is highly misleading.
That's assuming you even have primary care. There's a desperate shortage of family doctors in Ontario.
Maybe you don't need an appointment to see a GP in Canada? I'm from Austria and GPs are walk-in for most things here, maybe they're the same. But yeah, the graph is pretty useless without explaining what kind of appointments and what kind of surgeries.
To your last point: it could be, eg, your orthopedist (who isn't a surgeon) referring you to an orthopedic surgeon, no GP required in that case. But that just makes it even more complicated, because in some countries, you need a GP referral to any specialist. I think sometimes even every time you see the specialist.
What is misleading about it, it's just numbers? It basically says.. My knee hurts, let me go get it checked out: wait time column A. Physician says I need a knee replacement, wait time column B.
The chart isn't claiming anything. It doesn't say what is better or worse, just the wait times.
Meh, it is from Australia, so unless they have reason to make Canada look bad, it's just numbers
What stands out to me on that chart is that the US is more than twice as bad as any other country when it comes to wait time for primary care appointments.
right? like what is that… i consider a wait of more than a couple of days to be too long and just go to a random walk-in clinic… in a month most problems are gone already on their own or have gotten way out of control
Not remotely, no. I've been on a wait-list for a few weeks for appointments that are a minimum scheduled 3 months in advance.
It is a common talking point people use when justifying their anti-universal healthcare stance.
It is often paired with refusing to acknowledge the current state of US healthcare and thinking they are paying more for quality and access.
Yeah I have heard many many first hand anecdotes of people needing to schedule appointments months in advance
Yeah. I had crippling inflammation and it took months to get into a rheumatologist.
True. Even my primary care doctor needs 3 months advance scheduling to find me a slot.
certain health care facilities. i know for things like medi-caid/care it can be weeks to months in advance to see a specialist. they usually are quite fast in scheudling though. if anyone had kaiser, you can see a doctor quite quickly.
ALso URGENT care is a thing. i can see that for private practices, or doctors that Are swamped because of short staffing.
It's a very general broad topic. Probably depends a lot on what you need. And more importantly, how rich your are.
I highly doubt Bill Gates have to wait 3 months for a specialist appointment.
From my experience it depends on which health care provider you have. I have Kaiser and some things are pretty quick, some things aren't. I used to be on Covered California aka the ACA and things were a lot slower. Seems like, generally, the more money you pay in premiums the faster service you can get.
Maybe it could also be related to the difference between an HMO and normal insurance?
Yeah, could be
kaiser is so-so, but not great, they are just all doctors in one building type of deal. i had a pretty bad experience with a Kaiser ENT, deliberately ignored my concerns because he got MAD , apparently i was supposed to do only phone appointments and he felt like i waste my time according to him, and he vented his anger on the poor nurse that was in the area/ or the one that put me in the room. then he started laughing me out of the room because of that(i was having pretty frequent nosebleeds). when i switched ENT they found the cause of it(and i did have deviated septum as well, but that was apparently the source of his anger, because doctors do not like to hear patients mention procedures/surgery).
also KAIser tends to be expensive as well, thats why some employers arnt willing to pay for it.
It depends. Do you have a lot of money? I'm sure you can find someone that can see you right away.