Not on a theoretical level, but how would you practically have to pay costs, access specialist doctors?

  • bitsplease
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    1 year ago

    I guess I’ll give a non-horror story account from the US. My wife and I are fortunate to be on a good insurance plan though my work, we pay about $200/month total for the both of us out of pocket, and my work covers the rest.

    Were on an HMO plan, so basically we have a fair bit of restrictions on which doctors we can see, and finding a new primary is always a pain.

    On the brightside, medical care for us genuinely is cheap as hell (besides the insurance cost, ofc). My wife recently cut her hand in the kitchen and we had to rush her to urgent care to get stitches. We didn’t pay anything at the time, and got a bill in the mail for $20 the next month, and that was pretty much it.

    We’ve never (thankfully) had any major medical issues that need treating though, so hard to say how something like that would play out in reality.

    All that being said, if I lost my job, or if my job decided they wanted to cheap out I health insurance and I was - for some reason or another - unable to get a better job, then I’d be fucked. So don’t misconstrue any of this as an argument against universal Healthcare, just because it works well for me personally

    • tentaclius@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Sounds pretty terrible though. Paying $200 monthly to pay $20 for a simple visit is insane to me. I’m an expat living in Europe (so I don’t have the full privileges of locals), yet I pay about $200 per year for private medical insurance which makes doctor visits pretty much free for me. There is also an extended health insurance from the company (costs me about $20 monthly), which covers drugs, dental health an profilactical visits for free

    • thepreciousboar@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It’s so interesting that the main point against universal healthcare is that it’s cheaper because you don’t pay in your taxes. Yet the US have taxes and you still have to pay 200$/month, and your employee is paying even more money that would go in your check.

      Also, you lose your job and you are fucked, that seems like a horror story to me, how do you not live in axiety?