Right?

"people wait for MONTHS for non-emergent surgeries in places with universal healthcare"

You mean exactly like how the doctors here schedule grandma's knee replacement for May in January?

There is no non-luxury millionaire concierge medicine plan eventuality here in the US where someone complains about chronic pain, gets a diagnosis that isn't life threatening, and has the doctor pencil in their chronic pain addressing surgery for that afternoon.

Just another empty strawman explicitly made to derail the conversation.

The arguments about "inefficiency" and "bureaucracy" have to be the most baffling ones to me. We already have a system that is an inefficient maze of red tape, lengthy forms, and arbitrary decisions about healthcare availability made by suits without medical training. We already pay high premiums. What "efficiencies" of capitalist healthcare are we so desperate to preserve?

It's always some American that seems to personally know a ton of people that live in the UK and waited 2 years to have some major surgery. Or know someone that was stabbed and had to wait 36 hours in a A&E waiting room.

I mean don't get me wrong the NHS is stretched very thin under the tories and ambulances especially are pretty fucked st the minute, but when I broke my arm I was stabilised quickly overnight, scheduled for an op in the morning, operated on, given time to recover and 2 good meals and sent on my way withing 24 hours od admission. And then just the other day when I dislocated my knee and tore a ligament I was seen to, stabiled and released within a few hours.

It's gotten to the point where my doctor's practice got bought by Walgreens and doesn't staff well enough to handle ANY acute cases. If I call for a sinus infection or because my little one is sick, I can't see my doctor or his pediatrician for upwards of two months. They send me to urgent care. They, admittedly, bill the same for urgent care as a normal visit, but there is no continuity of care, even for the pediatrician. Even when trying to schedule a 9 month checkup 45 days in advance, they tried to give me an appointment after his birthday!

What a fucking mess. Corporitization of Healthcare has utterly ruined the system. There is no room for real patient-doctor relationships anymore. Even though we like our doctors we can't see them!

My roommate waited 9 months for a specialty surgery, but the surgeon injured themself right before his surgery and he then needed to go on the waitlist for an additional 6 months. He finally got the surgery, but instead of it being in the summer, it was during midterms, which fucked him over.

I fucking hate American healthcare, and I hate the “socialism is when you wait 6 months for a doctor” bullshit that always comes up when socialized healthcare is discussed.

It took 5 months between my doctor putting me in the system to get my tubes tied and when I was able to get it scheduled. I need an ultrasound and my doctor was like "get that asap" which apparently means 2 months because that was the next opening. I'm supposed to have a skin cancer screening once a year since I've had it before and that took 3 months to schedule. Yeah, US healthcare is suuuuper efficient.

No kidding. 6 month wait to see a PCP for a physical. 3 weeks to see them for an acute issue. Off to the ED to wait hours or walk-in and pay a premium. Maybe you lose your PCP because you changed jobs or your job changed insurance. But you can pay a premium out of pocket to go to your old one.

The republicans got the death panels they were screaming about. They just wanted to make sure they were profitable.

I called all the local PCPs today. One entire hospital system doesn't accept my insurance (Cigna) due to price negotiations. All the others don't have new patient appointments until December. So I guess in about 11 months, I can find out if I'm healthy!

Imagine sticking up for shitty insurance companies 🤮

As someone who moved to a country with privatized healthcare and is currently sitting in a 10 minute line to get seen, this meme can shove itself up OPs butt.

Universal healthcare is great, but someone should be able to pay to get seen quickly. I want that option.

But I thought we weren't allowed to compare the US to other countries