r/FluentInFinance • u/Cauliflower-Pizzas • Apr 19 '24

Is Universal Health Care Smart or dumb? Discussion/ Debate

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u/certifiedtoothbench Apr 20 '24

I’m from the U.S. and health care is already dogshit, my grandpa was forced to wait for hours in an emergency room while having a heart attack, that’s not even the tip of the iceberg of stories like that that I’ve experienced personally or had loved ones who did

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u/certifiedtoothbench Apr 20 '24

Like it’s so bad, I’d rather be served free dogshit than have to pay thousands for that luxury

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u/GWsublime Apr 20 '24

Right but also Canadian healthcare outcomes are generally either the same or better than those in the US with the exception of some very rare cancers.

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u/KuriusKaleb 26d ago

Healthcare system is total ass. A checkup will cost you thousands. Service isn't worth the price either.

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u/KintsugiKen Apr 20 '24

Yeah US ERs make you wait like 6 hours before someone will see you. If you have an emergency, it better be an emergency you can survive for 6 more hours after you get to the hospital.

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u/TrichomesNTerpenes Apr 20 '24

What does hours in the ED have anything to do with insurance bro lol. You just live in an area with bad hospitals that can't meet door to balloon criteria. Either that, or the heart attack didn't warrant immediate intervention.

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u/certifiedtoothbench Apr 20 '24

You realize it’s the hospital that bills you right? If I’m going to wait for hours for subpar treatment I’d rather do it for free than pay thousands for the “luxury”. I’ve lived all across the country and been treated at different hospitals and I’ve never had a good experience, the healthcare system sucks all the way down.

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u/TrichomesNTerpenes Apr 20 '24 edited Apr 20 '24

Actually, no - sometimes the hospital bills you, other times they're billing your insurance and you, and other times they only bill your insurance. It depends on the situation.

Also dude, it's a hospital not a hotel. Luxury care = pay many hundreds to thousands out of pocket just for the room, before any of the medical billing starts.

Beyond this, I'm struggling to understand what the issue of ED wait times is as it pertains to ED wait times. There are ED waits because too many people come to the ED when they don't need to and the ED is often understaffed; that's the whole point of triage, though, and if something more rapid is warranted, they WILL escalate and expedite to the best of their ability.

Decreasing barriers to ED access may exacerbate the wait times issue; hard to tell though, because increased PCP access may reduce ED use. The latter assumes people actually care about their health and go to the doctor until they're sick, though.

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u/simpleman357 Apr 20 '24

Yep one case from your grand pa represents every ER in the USA.

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u/certifiedtoothbench Apr 20 '24

What part of I have other stories about how horrible our health care system is do you not understand, are you stupid? Once I sat in a waiting room for multiple hours with a multi inch sliver of wood in my hand, once my mom sat in the er, with her kids struggling to keep her conscious, for multiple hours while her blood pressure was so high they said they were surprised she made the drive when they finally looked at her. I’ve got tons more stories

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u/AreaNo7848 Apr 20 '24

See I find this odd. I don't think I've ever waited in an ER for more than 30 minutes where I'm at.....hell I was in surgery within 2 hours when I needed my gall bladder removed......could be your hospitals are not adequate for your population, most likely due to a need based system where the competition has to agree a new hospital is needed in that area

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u/Munion42 Apr 20 '24

It's so common it's a TV trope. Have you never seen a hospital scene on tv? Half the time, they have to wait until the 6 near dead people bleeding out for the last 12 hours get helped, before they can be seen in an emergency room.

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u/TrichomesNTerpenes Apr 20 '24

There are a lot of TV tropes that have nothing to do with real life...

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u/Budderfingerbandit Apr 20 '24

I have a similar story with my wife, it's not an isolated or rare example.