As an American I’m curious what it’s like if you need to go to the doctor and how much you pay from say a broken arm to general checkup. Also list what country please
UK, only concern was how will I get home. Could walk but it’s 3AM and cold, do I still need cash for a taxi?
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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.
I have heard horror stories about having to bribe the doctor and nurses when you arrive at the hospital in labor because they give bare minimum plus “mistakes” otherwise. Is it free plus expected/required tip?
Didn’t hear of something like this, most likely a local scandal somewhere. Not a common practice. However, some officially paid options remain, like the most potent forms of anesthesia, or a private room in some instances.
There are some forms of widespread corruption. Many of the head physicians are bribed by pharmacy companies so that doctors prescribe unnecessarily expensive (albeit still relevant) medication, racking the patient’s bills on that. In some instances, bribing the right people allows you to bypass the queues as an urgent patient without being one.
As per maternity hospitals, I’ve heard of a few…questionable practices, still. The “husband stitch”, for example, is still a thing in some regional hospitals, and it’s not good for women’s health and wellbeing.
Cool, thanks for the response
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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.
Free? That’s hardly free. I pay monthly NHS and barely get appointments. R.I.P, people with conditions that need to be diagnosed early.
Accidents? Yeah, you get help immediately. Other conditions? You better go private.
Whinge more.
Let me know when you have to decide between an ambulance ride or three rent.
Just went to the ER last week and I was there for 3 hours before I got seen. It wasn’t life threatening. Then, I was just sitting in the back for 8 hours. Nurse saw me twice. No doctor. I got checked, was given Tylenol and said I was “fine”.
I’m glad I didn’t crash out. Then I scheduled an appointment with my PRIVATE doctor and could get one in 9 weeks.
I pay $1100 a month for health insurance for me and my family.
I haven’t got the bill for ambulance yet or the hospital. But my last ambulance ride was $2800, which insurance was willing to pay 75% of it.
Yeah, Canadians bitch about waiting in ER thinking it’s different in the USA. Dumbasses have never lived outside of Canada.
I lived in America for 6 years, 07306 and 98125. Canada in the V9, V3, V8, V0, T2, K2, K3 postal codes.
Wait times were identical.
Care was identical.
The only difference was American healthcare has a credit card machine on the way out, and Canadian healthcare has no payment stuff – but may ask you to confirm your health number when you find it (came in without any paperwork) for the records.
I pay $0 extra for healthcare, beyond normal income tax (which consistently ranks 1% below American, something I’ve been tracking from before when I had to file in both countries).
I will say our conservatives are consistently trying to open the door to the two-tier setup, and hearing how well it’s done for the NHS I really want us to avoid that. They’d like to get us under the mercenary American system, and their corpo donors are really pushing for that. Especially because our gun laws prevent Luigis.
In the USA automobile insurance would have covered the first $100k. Anything beyond that is either up to the insurance coverage paid for or a legal battle.
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.
Fuck yeah remission! I got scared when I read “myeloma”… I hope it stays gone for good (or until you’re nearing 100 and DGAF anymore.
I’m sorry you had to go through that, but I’m very happy you’re here to post your experience.
thank you, you’re very kind. Treatments for all types of cancers are improving all the time.
I’m so pleased that you’re in remission!
Ive been in the public mental health system since I was a teenager (Australia too). Have not paid a cent for it. I am 40 now.
We pay 25 usd ish per doctors appointment in Norway. With a cap of 300 or something.
Some medication you’ll have to pay for. But it’s pretty heavily subsidised.
But like when my wife gave birth, we paid nothing
What is it like here in France? I don’t have to lose sleep at night because I can’t afford the cosmically expensive medications that are the only thing keeping me alive. Edit: well worth the many taxes I pay…
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.
It’s not free, you pay for it with your taxes.
Free at the point of service.
But I suppose for people not paying taxes is free overall.
Hur hur you really got them there
A week? That’s fast in America.
The quickest I was able to be seen because of a major health scare was two weeks. When I hurt myself and needed physical therapy, the staff said with a straight face “Lets get you in as the first week is important for recovery. How is [date six weeks in advance]?”
One week for the primare care first appointment. The one that unless you have something very harmless wont be able to do anything for you anyway but refer to a specialist.
Physical therapy is one of the experts that could easily take 6 months to see.
One week is A LOT for health issues. It used to be that you could go in the same day, or the day after. But things have been going downhill for a while.
Worse than it used to be. Better than it will be. Not free because we pay it through taxes and medicines aren’t cheap.
I had an appendicitis go undiagnosed for a few days (partly because of bad emergency care, partly because I keep waiting forever before seeing a doctor). Turned into peritonitis, as it does. Decision to operate was instantaneous; I didn’t even go back to the emergency “landing area” after the radiography, but straight to showering before the operating room. Then, had to spent a week in the hospital, including four days of full-blown crazyness-inducing fever, three different kinds of painkillers (btw I’m allergic to three derivatives of morphine… found out the fun way).
It all cost me something around 8€ in the end. That would have been around… $8 at the time. Not to mention, I had no issue at my job back then because we have sick leave too.
At no point in any of this have I considered “but can I avoid going to the doctor” or “I should leave the hospital as soon as possible”, or “I have to work during this week of madness”. I just got better, and got back on track.
That was France, btw.
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.
apparently dental care is quite expensive in some countries despite covering for healthcare that isnt teeth. just for context, in some areas in states, west coast. i had limited x-ray exam on tooths that were hurting it was around several hundred outofpocket, no insurance. seems inidvidual insurance is alot worst for dental than an employer negotiated one.
and that xray isnt looking at your whole mouth. all bets are off on cost if your tooth needs rootcanal, crowns,etc. apparently molars are more expensive compared to front teeth for rootcanal and crowns. RTC itself(not including xray or general workup) can be 1-2k per teeth, doesnt include temp crowns. definitely have to shop around if your insurance doesnt pay for it, or a specific clinic cost too much.
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 $100 and a couple cents, since it was some sort of post-appointment subsidy. Pretty neat honestly, didn’t know at the time they’d even consider doing that.
There’s also a new tier of healthcare facilities which were and are still being built by the Albanese Labor government both last and this term, which are called Urgent Care Clinics, basically being mini hospitals for mainly physical issues like broken arms, cuts or other injuries, which are easy enough to treat. These were created to ease the burden on emergency departments of full blown hospitals, so as to allow more elderly and sick patients to get treatment with less delay.
The sucky thing is that the public system in WA (don’t know about other states) doesn’t and will not cover ADHD assessments. Ask me how I know D:
Just paid 1600$ aud for an assessment. :(
Australia also has this cool thing called Royal Flying Doctor Service which are doctors flying across the country in the outback to service people and take them to and from the hospital
How could I forget those absolute legends?
I did some research and turns out the RFDS has 23 bases and a fleet of 79 planes, with a much smaller fleet of helicopters for rugged terrain and short, urgent trips.
It mainly relies on a combination of donations and government funding, and is of course a non profit. It also tends towards mainly outback service, rather than equivalent organisations in other nations, which tend to focus on a mix of urban and rural service.
Anyway, I’ll probably spend the next few hours obsessively looking up everything about the RFDS, and solidify that my sleep schedule is actually so shattered, but damn it’s an interesting organisation.
I also watched the tv show and it was kinda cool, thought it was unique, not your regular hospital drama
While looking up some of their statistics before, I did find out about the RFDS TV show and I’m pretty intrigued honestly. I’ll probably start watching it soon now that you’ve mentioned it. It might get me to stop focusing on the burnout I’m in currently haha
One of the first things I watched with my PBS membership
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.
Ambulance membership? lol. So you don’t really have universal healthcare
Nope but our system is much more universal than America’s.
We have the same system for ambulances. You pay a yearly fee to insurance and ambulances are covered or made much cheaper.
Hmmmm. Our ambulance membership costs go directly to the ambulance services though, not through an insurance company. The ‘fee’ without the membership is basically a penalty fee to encourage everyone to be a member so the ambulance is constantly funded.
It really should be done as part of our tax system, but we tend to follow US crony capitalism.
Edit: I’m half wrong. The money doesn’t go to insurance companies but it’s a state thing that sort of goes direct to the ambulance service.
Yes and it allows people such as myself, low income earners, disability, to not have to pay for an ambulance (or an annual membership) if needed. ❤️ I think it’s a pretty decent system especially compared to others.
US crony capitalism.
You can just say capitalism, calling it anything else only serves to mislead people about natural evolution of capitalism.
Our ambulance membership costs go directly to the ambulance services though, not through an insurance company
So what if you’re outside that company’s coverage area?
You can just say capitalism, calling it anything else only serves to mislead people about natural evolution of capitalism.
I think there’s a little misunderstanding there (not US-crony-capitalism) but I’m happy to just call it capitalism.
So what if you’re outside that company’s coverage area?
It’s not a company though. The ambulance is state run, so to be ‘outside’ the service area is to be in another state, where they’d have their own state run ambulance service.
The membership covers costs for everyone within the state regardless of how remote you are.
So if you’re a NSW resident and you get hurt in Victoria, do you pay full rate or does the ambulance subscription cover you either way?
Ontario, Canada:
My wife had bad abdominal pains in the evening. She’s had period cramps before, and it wasn’t this. She’s even had ovarian cysts go, which were terrible, but weren’t this. So we went to the hospital. We sat in chairs for probably 5 hours, then got a physical exam by a doctor. They sent us for an ultrasound within the hospital to see if it was an ovarian cyst, but nothing showed on that. That took a few hours. Then we went for a CAT I think it was, also within the hospital, and that showed that it was a swollen appendix. Sat in chairs upstairs, not the entryway, for another hour or so, until the doctor came by and told us that she should probably have that out, but that it wasn’t an imminent emergency and so they’ll keep her overnight in case something happens, give some pain meds, and then have surgery the next morning when the OR opens again proper, because by now it was probably 2am.
So she got a bed upatairs, I went home and slept at home, then met her the next morning back in her room. She did have a roommate in her room, and that roomie sucked, so that’s unfortunate. Then she went for surgery while I watched TV in the waiting room, then she was rolled out and stayed in a recovery room for a few hours while the anaesthesia wore off. The nurse came by and gave us medication to take, along with a prescription for some other meds, and some instructions, and we went on our way. The surgery was laparoscopic, so it only took a week or so to heal, and she was up and shuffling by the end of that first day.
All told, it was probably about 18 hours beginning to end, but that included some sleep in the middle. And, importantly, she didn’t die at any point in that process.
At no point in this process did my money leave my pocket. Money was simply not discussed. When weighing the options of going to the hospital versus staying home, or staying in the hospital overnight versus going home, or having the surgery versus not, or having a laparoscopic surgery versus not, money was never a factor. At all times our collective concern was on the health of my wife.
Her surprise appendicitis didn’t impact our life in any way, besides the one day we spent hanging out at the hospital.
