It differs a lot by specialty and country, but there are genuine waitlist issues, and there are non-issues.
Think the wait for a dermatologist appointment is approx 2 years in my country by now. Psychiatry? Called the hospital, they said they don’t have any openings for the foreseeable future (but luckily you can get private psychiatrists, only problem is that mine went to another clinic and doubled his already high price). ENT? A few weeks, very manageable. PCP? They’re limited by how many patients they can have (you’re assigned one at birth, but you can change later, you can’t just schedule an appt with a random PCP usually), it might vary by PCP, but mine schedules me for the next day quite often, no problem at all there.
Let’s argue the only point that matters here: affordability - the promise that the amount of money taken off my paycheck guarantees me healthcare that won’t put me in devastating debt or ruin my life with additional costs.
I’ll agree that healthcare access without devastating debt or costs is a basic human right. But it’s not the ONLY point that matters. In my country you might suspect a mole of being cancerous and die of said cancer before you get to see the dermatologist. Wouldn’t want to switch over to the American model, but there’s clearly something wrong with our system too. Parliament has decided to raise payroll taxes and enact a profit tax (a completely new tax) to develop our military since we share a border with Russia. There’s a brand new car tax including a pretty damn hefty registration tax (includes old cars changing owners if they haven’t been paid for yet, so pretty much all used cars) that’s being used to balance our budget… Oh and of course there was a second VAT increase in 1.5 years.
I don’t see the healthcare system getting any better, despite my annual tax load across the board increasing by several thousand euros and the ER and specialty doctor visit charge being quadrupled (which, surprise surprise, has NOT lessened the burden on ERs because it’s already a literal meme how unlikely Estonians are to go to the ER, or to a doctor in general - we only do it when our family members tell us to, not when we’re simply bleeding to death).
It differs a lot by specialty and country, but there are genuine waitlist issues, and there are non-issues.
Think the wait for a dermatologist appointment is approx 2 years in my country by now. Psychiatry? Called the hospital, they said they don’t have any openings for the foreseeable future (but luckily you can get private psychiatrists, only problem is that mine went to another clinic and doubled his already high price). ENT? A few weeks, very manageable. PCP? They’re limited by how many patients they can have (you’re assigned one at birth, but you can change later, you can’t just schedule an appt with a random PCP usually), it might vary by PCP, but mine schedules me for the next day quite often, no problem at all there.
I’ll agree that healthcare access without devastating debt or costs is a basic human right. But it’s not the ONLY point that matters. In my country you might suspect a mole of being cancerous and die of said cancer before you get to see the dermatologist. Wouldn’t want to switch over to the American model, but there’s clearly something wrong with our system too. Parliament has decided to raise payroll taxes and enact a profit tax (a completely new tax) to develop our military since we share a border with Russia. There’s a brand new car tax including a pretty damn hefty registration tax (includes old cars changing owners if they haven’t been paid for yet, so pretty much all used cars) that’s being used to balance our budget… Oh and of course there was a second VAT increase in 1.5 years.
I don’t see the healthcare system getting any better, despite my annual tax load across the board increasing by several thousand euros and the ER and specialty doctor visit charge being quadrupled (which, surprise surprise, has NOT lessened the burden on ERs because it’s already a literal meme how unlikely Estonians are to go to the ER, or to a doctor in general - we only do it when our family members tell us to, not when we’re simply bleeding to death).