Free Healthcare?

[cookiemunster]

As someone from the US I've always wondered what's it like having free healthcare?

My thyroid is jacked. So I have to get blood work and ultrasounds regularly.

I just dropped $250 for my two monthly prescriptions and another $100 for a copay. Not including the bill I'll receive for the blood work they did. D:
Last time the Dr was like 'let's do a full blood panel for the lolz' and that bill was about $1000.
Not complaining though, I appreciate the life.

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So what's it like?? I can't imagine not having to pay for the medicine I need to live and function normally. lol That's just a weird concept.


I'm so bored waiting at the dr office. xP

[Naked Gamer]

I've been rushed to hospital plenty in my life and all we do is show out Medicare card which is what it's called here and it's all good even free pills like antibiotics and pain killers from nurses.

Blood work is free I do it every 6 months pee and blood test for full body check all free.

Pills for thyroid here are way cheaper like $30 for 50 I believe I can't remember but my young brother suffered from it most of his life all under control now.

I've had tip of my right hand pointer finger crushed when I used to do factory work when I was 18 within 5hrs I was walking out with it fixed up for free O_o

My family Aboriginal Australian so there's a government program where I actually only pay 5% of any prescription meds....Yep 95% off meds O_o Australia rules. Theirs still health care company's where if you want surgery just pay $50-$100 a fortnight for 3-6month period and have certain amount of the total cost for the surgery and you're good to go, you will only really pay 30% of total cost until you're rich then it's full cost I think.


Australia rules though.


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[Rainey]

I recently moved from the states to the UK.

From what I've seen, it's nice that everyone can have access to it, but it is a pain in the ass to schedule a doctor's appointment. I haven't been ill at all to have the need to go beyond a check up, but my friends who have, their doctors don't really want to deal with it. Their attitudes seem really dismissive and I assume that's because they don't answer to the patients.
Most of the time they'll just blow them off, but then again they can't offer a full body scan to everyone who comes in with a runny nose or an upset stomach.

In the states, if you go in complaining, they pull out a plethora of useless tests just to bill you for it.

(and this is just from a student's perspective, where access to healthcare is through the university)

[vj87]

The NHS is not the best, but honestly I cannot imagine life without it. I have a low income and I would be absolutely screwed if I had to pay for everything, especially given the amount of hospital trips I/my daughter have had recently.

I have recently had my gallbladder taken out on the NHS after suffering a ridiculous amount of pain for nearly 2 years. I have been to A&E approximately 20 times during that period when my own pain medication was not enough and I have had to have morphine shots and the likes. If I had had to pay each time, I just could not have gone..simple as. I would have been suffering agony for hours and hours at home. I also got free healthcare that I could not fault AT ALL when I gave birth to my two children. Infact I could not praise them enough...everything went perfectly, I felt completely safe under the team I got and they did as much as they possibly could have to make things as easy as possible for me despite a rather horrific incident (that couldn't be avoided) involving a massive bloodloss after giving birth :/ My daughter has always been well looked after when she has been in (maybe 7 times in her 3 years, always chest problems associated with a cold) too.

Onto the bad sides. As I said I had my gallbladder out. The surgeon cut the wrong place and severed my bile duct...meaning what was meant to be an overnight stay went into weeks. I had small drainage tubes in my side for the small leak they reckoned they caused... During this time they tried to discharge me as they had no beds for other patients...the very same day a nurse raised a complaint saying she didn't think I was fit enough to go home and asked for a second opinion...and it turned out along with the bile duct being cut, the staples/stitches had not been put in properly and had come away...meaning my whole body was pretty much drowning in bile, I was poisoning myself and if I had been discharged that day as they wanted, I most likely would have died. Ended up having to have emergency surgery an hour after getting the second opinion...to redo staples and to literally wash my insides. Then had more surgery on the bile duct the next morning and much larger tubes coming out of my side to drain the remaining bile too (they were nearly as thick as pringles tubes, and thats not even an exaggeration). All in all I was in for 2 weeks for what was supposed to be an overnight stay. All of the stuff they did wrong is still affecting me as I have not even half recovered yet. Everything I eat makes me ill (I am living on apples and chicken. I can't even eat bloody potatoes...) I cannot pick up my children without putting myself back to square one with the pain. The 'pin prick' sized scars I was meant to be left with are gigantic angry purple things...and so on. My GP reckons I will not be recovered for roughly 6 months, maybe more.

I suppose the flip side of my horror story is...if I had had to pay for it, all of the stuff I had done would like have cost hundreds of thousands, and I guess things could still go drastically wrong with paid operations. So I would be bankrupt and broken. Though I do question if the surgeons and doctors would have been so negligent had I been paying...

ETA as RaineyM says though, scheduling an appointment can be a bit of a bitch. Generally you try to get a GP appointment where I live and there is nothing for a month..by which time your complaint has either fixed itself, you have been admitted to A&E or you have died. They do 'triage' children though which is good IMO. If you have an ill child you can get an appointment that day.

[Naked Gamer]

@(you need an account to see links) fucking hell! Glad you are alive. What a story wow so unlucky and lucky at the same time. Glad your kids still have a mother. Wow

Cost would of been huge.


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[Sci_Girl]

What is it like? My recent example. I had a routine family doctor visit to ask about getting some heartburn meds, Previcid (before it was OTC), because it was getting too painful for me. She said okay but since you have been having issues for more than a year I would like to book an endoscopy and fluoroscopy to make sure your throat has not developed any ulcers/issues from the acid. I said sure sounds like a good idea. She knew of a Gastroenterologist that just came to practice at the hospital down the street so she made the call that day to book me a consult/routine endoscopy. Next day I had the call to confirm I had an fluoroscopy at a different hospital booked for the following week, and then the endoscopy was booked the week after the fluoroscopy. Both procedures I checked in and within the hour I was in the procedure, endoscopy took longer because I had to do the initial consult with the new Gastroenterologist and then get prepped, put under for the procedure, and monitored after I woke from sedation. The fluoroscopy was maybe a half hour tops. One week after the fluorscopy my new Gastroenterologist called me in to discuss the results....which was no issues or cancer or anything.

So within a month of a routine GP visit I had the visit with her, new prescription ($5-6/month supply), name on a specialists patient list (incase I ever need to see the Gastroenterologist again), 2 procedures involving scans and one with sedation, and answers in a month. All for the cost of my prescription, and travel expenses.

We do not pay for doctor's visits. That is covered by the Canadian Health Act, "Medicare". Basically any essential service is covered by our National Healthcare insurance setup. We all pay into it but that means we can all do what I did...book an appointment get scans, blood work, consults etc and not pay. What is not covered is eye glasses, dental work, prescription costs, ambulance use, therapy visits, home/long term care. All of that stuff is covered by a Provincial Health Care. I live in Alberta so we have Alberta Blue Cross, for something like $30 a month you can get all that extra coverage. A family is covered for $100 a month. Companies often Provincial Healthcare benefits for less for their employees too. So basically we can get what we want when we want for a very reasonable cost.


That said we do have big issues with wait times in the Emergency room. Because soooooo many buttnuts decide that a cold, sniffles, or a stomach ache warrants a trip to the ER. I loathe these individuals. We need an education for hypochondriacs, start it early in school to prevent the mess we currently have. See your GP people not the ER for a runny nose! My brother broke his wrist, legit broke it was off in placement, and as we were sitting there you could count the number of morons in for sniffling lasting more than 3 days or an upset stomach (you could hear people chattering about what they were in for).

[vj87]

@(you need an account to see links) Thanks, been a bit of a nightmare and its not even over yet..I have to go back in january to get the 'stent' removed which I am obviously shitting myself about incase they manage to do something wrong again xD They sent me an appointment date for on my birthday though which I need to change, not allowing myself to be re-butchered on my birthday like, no chance.

[Naked Gamer]

@(you need an account to see links) I actually suffer from heart burn depending on what I eat mostly and I've had to get my throat checked but they put me to sleep to do it and now I take a pill every day to help with it. For years I was just taking those pill anyone can get that helps but was getting to bad for me.






@(you need an account to see links) don't blame you on that i would try rebook too but you may not have a choice possibly depending on next appointment date. All the best though I really hope that's the end of that nightmare


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[cookiemunster]

Wow guys those are some crazy stories! Of course as soon as I posted this I got sent back.
@(you need an account to see links) Australia sounds amazing! 5% is like a dream. lol I have insurance that is paid for monthly, but it doesn't cover a dime until I meet the ridiculously high deductible for the year. Then I will only have to pay copays depending on the level of care I need, which isn't tooo bad.
@(you need an account to see links) That makes sense. Here they kind of work for the patient in a way. That's really awesome that it's free though! I'm glad you made it through all that. Having babies is hard work. lol
@(you need an account to see links) Oh jeeze, I hope you get feeling better soon!! That's an awful situation. Same thing happens here too except you have to pay to be butchered. lol Do a lot of doctors get sued over there? Here if a doctor screws up then the patient just sues them for what they paid and like a ton more money just because they can. I pay for insurance monthly, but no one tells you it doesn't cover maternity insurance. That is a separate insurance policy/payment you have to have. On top of that pregnancy is considered a "preexisting condition" so you can't buy maternity insurance after you're already pregnant. You have to have it for like 6months BEFORE you get pregnant for it to work. lol It makes no sense to me! I think laws have changed so now they can't hold preexisting conditions against you. I got super super lucky and was just poor enough to get pregnancy medicaid which was nice because it paid for everything. I had two high risk pregnancies/deliveries and I think the total was $75K-100K per delivery and the following two day hospital stay. Not including any of the prenatal care/visits. 0_0 I'd be paying that off for life. (like my student loans)
@(you need an account to see links) That sounds amazing, 100 a month for the family! We have regular health insurance that we pay per person that pays for doctors and hospital visits. Then we have dental insurance. Then we have vision insurance. Then we have maternity insurance. Some plans let you pick and choose what you need and will put the payments into one for you. If you work full time then your work gives you insurance and takes it out of your paycheck. Part time or less then you usually get private insurance (which is expensive and what I have) or medicaid/medicare if you qualify. I highly doubt the US will ever get free healthcare like the rest of the world. They make far too much money for that.

[Rainey]

@(you need an account to see links) That makes sense. Here they kind of work for the patient in a way. That's really awesome that it's free though! I'm glad you made it through all that. Having babies is hard work. lol

nooo babies. meant "check up" as in a routine yearly physical.

Had to clarify since everyone else is/has gone through so much, and I was just whining about waiting too long for an appointment.