Political Memes

My American healthcare:

• Its so much more expensive under Trump. It went from $250/month for my family, to now $1100/month.

• My kid hurt themselves and we were in the urgent care waiting area for 2 hours. Then a professional looked him over, said they'll be fine, and gave us some expensive pain killer pills.

• I have to schedule my appointments 4-6 months in advance.

• I had to get a referral for some health services and after two weeks, they finally had a slot to actually start scheduling the appointment. Then they asked about my insurance and told me that they are out-of-network, and recommended another practice. I now have to wait another few more weeks, just to hopefully be seen.

I get the message. But this is incorrect. You don’t have shorter wait times in the US. 

In Canada some wait times, for non-emergency procedures and in high traffic areas are publicized, usually by the forces who would benefit from privatization.

I can quickly counter those anecdotes with anecdotes of my own: I have never waited long for medical care because I live in a low traffic area and I don’t seek low priority medical care.

What you actually have in the US is a greater opportunity for shorter wait times as the result of paying a premium…but you also have longer wait times and people foregoing care entirely that they would receive in Canada. 

I'm a physician in the US and had to wait 11 months for a dermatology appointment at the same hospital system I work at and the insurance owned by the same hospital system covered $95 of the $430 bill. We do not have it better than Canada, at all.

tbh that is underselling how terrible the American healthcare system is lol. die from waiting? more like die from being denied medically necessary procedures by a Prior Authorization team who has never met the patient they make these decisions for and has the authority to reject the demands and recommendations of physicians treating the patient. more like die from avoiding going to the ER because you don’t want to deal with even more debt, so you stay at home and “sleep it off.”

Us canucks are trying really hard to add dentalcare and pharmacare to our universal healthcare system.

Fuck insurance companies hurting people and bribing our government to make a quick buck.

Everyone deserves healthcare.

Shorter wait times thing is bullshit. All hospitals do Triage - the worse you are the faster you are seen

Been ER in both USA and Spain; USA for a kidney stone and Spain for severe panic attack we confused for a heart attack (were prone to those even at young age due to health condition) both had a wait time.

USA hospital: wait time was 15 minutes, hospital was not busy at all, no one to check on us while waiting. Overall experience 3/5. Costs ~4,3kusd

Spain hospital: wait time was 5 minutes, hospital was really busy but still had a nurse look over us and a few others while waiting. Overall experience 5/5. Costs 60€

There’s still a few things we don’t like how they do medical stuff here, but we also have the option of doing private health insurance and getting our own doctor out just paying for a doctor out right at a reasonable amount. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Edit: note we can’t get public insurance yet as we can’t pay taxes yet as an immigrant. Sucks, but those the dice. With public insurance the hospital would’ve been free :P

Shorter wait times, lol. No we don’t have shorter wait times. I was on a wait list to get an appointment. After 8 months, they called to see if I wanted to stay on the list, I said yes, and I never heard from them again.

Later, I had to wait almost a year for an appointment with a neurologist for a sleep disorder.

My follow up appointment with that neurologist will happen almost full year after my first appointment.

I don't think Canada has longer wait times in general, although of course they might on specific surgeries or operations or procedures, but that's true for every country in the world.

I live in Japan and I've never had any of my friends or acquaintances ever tell me that they had to wait a significant time to get the treatment they needed. This includes many people who have serious medical conditions of various kinds in middle and old age. So even if you can find a country that does national health care poorly, it doesn't mean you should copy them because many other countries are doing it well.

I've been in the ER in both for severe food poisoning. Same care in both, equivalent locations too.

In the US it cost $3000 minimum and I was put in the hallway and ignored for hours. In Canada I had to wait an hour or two longer to get seem, but I got better care and walked out afterwards like it was a Pokemon center. I prefer the latter, even in its Doug Forded state

I came down with flu symptoms this week and went to the local urgent care. Waited an hour to be seen, they did a rapid flu and covid swab and it came back negative. They told me that the flu strain going around right now doesn't test positive for a few days and that it's probably the flu given all of the symptoms. They told me that I am young and healthy enough so I should just take Tylenol and drink fluids and ride it out. All in all it took 2 hours and there was a $100 co-pay with my insurance that I pay out the ass for. No tamiflu script. This medical system is trash. Every time I get sick my wife urges me to go to urgent care and I'm like "no, they are completely unhelpful and it costs too much money"

I would be much more willing to go if it didn't cost so much and take so long.

One of these days something is actually going to be wrong, and my distrust for the medical system is going to land me in the hospital for something that was treatable.

Why would I want to live longer in america don't we suffer enough

As a Canadian I would like whatever France is doing

Absolutely not shorter wait times.

It's easy to have shorter wait times when nobody can afford to go there in the first place.

I can’t believe my fellow Americans who are so worried about how much a real healthcare system would cost when we are getting crushed under the most expensive fucking system in the world. It’s like they take all the current price tags from our corrupt, bullshit system that doesn’t serve everyone and apply them to the whole population, completely ignoring the price negotiation power of single-payer and all the gouging and waste we get from the corporations.

As a Canadian, yeah, our wait times are rancid and they often get glossed over because of how bad America's healthcare is in comparison. Don't get me started on how Canadians will excuse any issue with the country because "at least we're not as bad as America" and shit like that.

But damn it, I'd still take our busted healthcare system over virtually NO healthcare system. Fuck paying to live. Oh wait, that's just capitalism.

Stupid fucks don't understand the idea of doing a triage, and think it's an argument for the worst healthcare system.

I mean I know that long wait times exist in our system, but I've personally just never experienced them.

I broke my arm a couple years ago. Got to hospital around 8pm. Got painkillers immediately and a bed on the triage ward, stronger painkillers within 30 mins, got x-rays, consulted and then a Ketamine injection and had the arm set and bandaged within 3 hours, then was scheduled for surgery the next day when the non emergency surgeons are in. Went under at 11am the next day, had a plate put in and stiched up and was released by 5pm that day, so in and out in <24 hours.

And it cost me absolutely nothing.

The longest I've had to wait for something was 2 weeks to get a MRI done on my knee after I dislocated it.

I emigrated from the US five years ago. The last year I lived there, I paid $13k for healthcare (including my deductible and premiums) as a healthy single adult in my 20s with one monthly prescription.

I’ve been in psychiatric care for the best part of 25 years. I’ve paid nothing.

We have shorter* wait times!

*If you can afford the premiums, otherwise enjoy jumping through months of bureaucratic hoops to get referrals so you can be put on a waiting list to even be considered being a patient for the few doctors available, who will also have multi-month long wait times between appointments because of how over burdened they are.

Americans enjoy the shortest wait times when they go the ER to find out they have stage 4 colon cancer.

From diagnosis to the grave is on average only a few months! 🇺🇸

Is your hospital a sweet racecar bed tho?

Americans are simply not afraid of death and see healthcare as an unnecessary crutch and a sign of spiritual weakness!