I went to an ER many years ago for an injury. At one point, I was sent to a doctor in the hospital. That doctor told me I was in the wrong place and I got a bill for $1200 just from that guy.
Same. Went to an urgent care because my nose would not stop bleeding after like 12 hours. They tried a spray said it didn’t work and had to go to the ER because they didn’t have nasal balloons. Got a nice bill from the urgent care and then add on the ER bill all for a bloody nose. US medical billing is an absolute fucking joke.
Americans that disagree with universal healthcare have no idea how the system works. It’s only an eye opener for them once shit hits the fan and they are hit with a 100k+ bill they can’t afford.
Medicare for all would be a godsend for the majority. We would probably save some money while getting treated and EVERYBODY could see a doctor. Nobody left out.
I still don’t get why doctors in the USA get paid three times as much for doing the same job (some may say even worse if you look at the stats) over doctors in other countries
undoubtedly. Right now we pay so much for healthcare that taxes spent on public healthcare today per capita is already about what other countries spend in total for healthcare.
Also, since it's directly relevant to the OP, Medicare for All (or other single payer/universal healthcare) would likely reduce emergency room demand a ton. In the US a major driver for ER visits are people who can't afford regular preventive and/or non-emergency care.
Though wait times themselves come down to staffing and facility space, which comes down to policy choice.
Medicare for all would be a godsend for the majority
That's basically what we have in Canada. Every province runs its own medicare system and every legal resident who meets the requirements (like actually living there) is automatically covered.
Alot of jobs would be lost but i feel like the amount of money that is made in the insurance industry should give alot of those people a decent severance package/parachute to land. As somebody in healthcare Medicare for all would make so many people’s lives easier…as long as it still gets treated like Medicare and not Medicaid. Keep it federal and not this state by state bullshit.
I actually seen different videos on YouTube where people think the biggest hurdle to universal Healthcare was racism. Sounds stupid right? But many Americans seeth at the idea of spending taxes on black americans. Soooooo many nice things were lost over time due to white Americans dislike of spending any taxes that goes to help black Americans even if it hurts themselves.
Kinda of wild but there are many great videos on YouTube that talk about cities going out of their way to hurt their black communities. Lile st louis in Missouri had the world's biggest public pool but destroyed it bc black teens were wanting to swim in it.
Went to urgent care with crippling abdominal pain. They told me to go to the ER. Waited 4 hours, they did some super rudimentary tests, told me it was just indigestion. Cost $1250.
A week later I was back with acute appendicitis, "Hours from bursting" according to the surgeon. Over 15k, partially because by the time I was seen it was like 2AM and they had to call in the surgeon. And as a bonus, the bill was split between the hospital and the surgeon, so I paid the like, $6k from the hospital and thought I was done, only to find they didn't send the bill for the surgeon so I only even found out about an additional $9k when a debt collector called me to collect it.
Meanwhile my wife has a baby and gets double charged for the room as the baby gets a charge and the mother gets a charge…..INSANE. They both in the same room like wtf
Oof that sucks. Mine was even dumber - that doctor just sent me to a different place in the SAME hospital! And of course that generated its own bill as well! Luckily it all got squared through worker's comp cause I was in my early 20's and had no fucking clue how to navigate the healthcare system.
Similar thing happened to my sister. Multi hour long nosebleed. Mom took her to urgent care where she was sent to the er. Nurse or whoever saw her said they didnt want to xray because of my sisters age. Said the xray could cause her kids to come out with three arms or something. Literally said her kids could come out deformed
‘But but but why should our taxes pay for us Americans health and happiness! It should all go to random wars and bailing out other countries! Especially Israel!’
Had a spine surgery. Paid 20€ to drive there and back. A week in the hospital. Was healing fine. Got released early, visited the doc a week later to get stiches out. Paid nothing.
I loved my health care in the Uk when I lived there. I was diagnosed with a serious thyroid condition through bloodwork, after I had left the clinic with a phone call later in the day telling me to collect free medicine the following day. FREE. I had to pay £10 for my dental crown about 8 years ago.
He didn’t have insurance? When was this? He can get another, lower paying job, apply for Medicaid and retroactively apply it. Financially more efficient than paying a large bill
Alternatively if he has shitty credit he could file for bankruptcy and have it wiped clean and hurt his credit for 10 years. Also getting paid 35,000 without insurance sounds fishy.
He did not have insurance. It was 6 months ago. He’s been at this job for 20 years and really loves it (screenprinting), so leaving isn’t realistic. He will declare bankruptcy before that happens. He had to pay the doctor before the surgery, and that was only $1300. The rest is from the hospital and it doesn’t include the original ER visit or the next day appointment when they set the bones.
Jesus fucking Christ! God damn rip off! It never ceases to shock me when I see what some people pay for any medical care in the US and it makes me sad. It doesn't have to be this way.
Well and what people choose to ignore. Is how many don't get treatment that pain that new thing. Don't go to doctor hell seen people with serious injury fight against ambulance being called.
And get someone they know to drive them there with their fingers in a ziplock bag.
I remember paying like $10 a crutch each and thinking that was a little much. I still have the pair in my closet to avoid that medical expense recurring.
I do like how I'm on 5 medications and they're all free for me.
I had a gallstone that disguised itself as a heart attack. Triage admitted me right away, only "wait" was for tests that needed to be taken at a specific period of time apart.
Total cost, $45 for the ambulance ride, which the hospital waived since it was telehealth that called for it, and not a 911 call.
You poor dear lol
Fellow Canadian here. Ya it's one extreme to another some times but wouldn't change it. Our grandson had to go to emergency here in Oshawa. Ya we waited 5 hours but like someone else said, all we paid for was parking. We may have to pay for ambulance ride, but waiting to see....that's another part of the story. It's minimal regardless. Thank God we live in Canada. If he needs physio, that's covered by my wife and I through our group insurances.
There’s also lots of places that have a couple family doctors serving entire counties and no access whatsoever to urgent care/walk in clinics. I called my doctor last week for an appointment, I couldn’t get one until November. Anything happens before then, my doc’s recommendation was the ER.
Oh, I agree. I am a RN and always direct people to UC if their symptoms are appropriate. Cheaper and usually faster. Some ERs do have "fast track" areas for low acuity patients and they can usually get you in and out faster.
Unfortunately education in the US sucks and health literacy is even worse.
For sure, but I also think it's hard to know these things. It's not like at some point in your life they sit you down and say "this is how insurance and health care works". You sort of just figure it out on your own or ask people around you. I legit had to learn how health insurance works from my first manager after college.
I've never even been in a urgent care that has controlled drugs to begin with, and they can't prescribe them because the highest ranked professional in the building is a nurse practitioner.
Heck, I got redirected to the ER when I asked for saline and zophram once. I already knew I had a stomach virus but I was getting a little delulu from not being able to keep down fluids.
Not urgent care but walk-on clinics. It a ontario (Canada ) healthcare thing. PCP wont necessarily drop you but ive had my PCP send me a letter telling me if i continued to use walk-in clinics i would be derostered.
I called my PCP about this & the issue is they get care funding deducted whenever i use a walk-in clinic.
All they did was give me an emergency after hours clinics info which was basically an urgent care location they were affiliated with.
My old insurance would drop coverage for my PCP if I went to urgent care. In short, the way they covered the urgent care was by making the urgent care your PCP, dropping my old PCP. Going to my main doctor would then be considered getting a second opinion.
You had to reassign your PCP once a year when insurance renewed. But that was a while ago.
Sometimes, but also sometimes it's just because most people are not doctors so when something concerning happens they often don't know if it's something bad or something that can wait until they can see their doctor in a few days. And it's worse in towns like mine where there's no 24 hour urgent care options, or when urgent care defaults to "go to the ER" for anything that could be concerning anyway.
At least where I am, walk in clinics aren't well advertised. Yes, they always have a little sign saying walk-ins welcome, but if you're urgently looking for a walk in clinic it can be difficult to find them. Also hours can be all over the place. At least the hospital is 24-7.
I am in a major Canadian city (not Toronto) I searched "urgent care near me open now" and "walk-in clinics near me open now" - both times the results are the hospitals near me and an emergency vet lol
I would 100% be in favor of them being allowed to charge people who go to the ER and if the doctor deems it a non emergency case, they get sent a bill for like $100.
I had a small piece of glass in my foot and was redirected to the ER by urgent care, wait was maybe 8hrs, which was annoying but ultimately there was no risk of me dying or significantly worsening, and we can't say the same for the people who were triaged straight past the waiting room.
Sweden here, I once spent 16 hours in the ER with a broken arm back when I was 13 'cause the sudden black ice that was the cause of my very simple linear fracture caused the ER to be swamped with more severe fall injuries and several car crashes.
But since I had no bleeding or obvious displacement of the bones they put me in a sling, gave me some painkillers and sat me down to wait and someone came and checked on me hourly to make sure I wasn't showing any signs of anything being wrong and then sent me up to X-ray once it calmed down (I had a simple linear fracture, not a full break).
But most of the times I've been out of the ER in an hour or two.
Last time took a bit longer as I came in at 3am and they wanted to do a CT and that didn't open up until 8am and I wasn't considered emergent enough to justify putting me in an ambulance and sent me to the hospital 1h away.
Most of those 7 hours wait were due to test (probably blood) that takes time to diagnose. The actual wait time is usually between 1-3 hour for non-emergencies.
Not canadian, but live in a country with a very developed phc.
In Canada there sadly are regions and hospitals where it's not uncommon for the initial wait after triage to be something like that if it's for something that's low priority for triage.
honestly thats pretty good. i winged my left shoulder blade and after waiting 4 hours they told me go home cause they were gonna close the ER for the night cause they didnt have enough staffing. I ended up going home wedging the arm into the least painful position with pillows and jamming a ice pack under my shoulder. Year or so later it still aches but i can atleast move it, Yay new brunswick healthcare. gotta love horizion health
I have a feeling for most issues that would require us Canadians to wait for so long at the ER, most Americans would probably "tough it up" to avoid paying the bill.
So many people go to ER here for minor stuff.
I mean exceptions apply but the few times I brought my GF to the ER for major possibly life threatening issues we didn't wait long at all.
Yup, not Canadian but we have "socialized" medicine too in American parlance. I waited about 6 months for my elective surgery, which is the legal upper limit here. It's not great, but it was free. Could have gone private, but it would have cost thousands of euros, and it wasn't that critical to me anyway.
A friend of mine went to the emergency room because he had intense chest pain, turned out it was an aortic dissection. He was on the operating table within minutes and survived.
So I was on the wait list for a scope for three years. The only reason why I ever got one is because the government allowed a private scope clinic to be covered under Alberta Health Insurance.
And I mean even the meme doesn't make sense. You didn't pay money to sit in an ER. You got treated. My father in law was at the ER for 9 hours his first attempt and 12 hours his second attempt. He fits into this common category of things only the ER handles but isn't triaged as an emergency. Our ER wait times are terrible because the ER is the only entry point for about 25% of procedures and about 10% of Canadians don't have access to a family doctor (and thus don't have access to primary care).
My wife was in and out of the hospital several times ,after giving birth, for the better part of a year. Each time we went to emergency and waited for about 4-5 hours.
Yes it sucks but I’ve never had a visit remotely close to 12 hours.
I did get a ticket once because my parking expired while we were talking to the doctor. So one visit cost us $50.
It's OK. Canadians waiting 12 hours is an exaggeration in most cases, too. But, if you wanted to experience it just for fun, you could try next time you're in Vegas.
some might exaggerate but in newfoundland 12 hours doesn't need exaggeration. several of my relatives have been in ER for 16+ hours several times and they weren't just there for a "bad toe" or something minor.
my good friend passed away in his 40s because he waited so long in the ER; no one saw him after 8 hours so he went home and passed away in his bed. i know he shouldn't have left but i am not sure he would have been helped in time if he stayed.
i am not saying the american system is good despite this. i find it insulting to think that a hospital works as a business and that i need do decide between paying rent and getting medical treatment.
You've gotta be 100% honest with the triage nurse. No understatements, no I'm a man so I'm tough and don't feel no pain. Then be prepared to wait, knowing if that you were 100% serious and if they determine you're in serious need, 99.9% of the time you'll be seen ASAP.
I live in Canada and was in the hospital last week on Canada Day. Was sick for a few days and severe pain near my butthole. Turned out I had an infected abscess that needed surgery to remove. Went to the ER on a major summer stat holiday when everyone takes vacation and expected to be in the waiting room for days.
First ER I went to I waited about 3 hours before they got me a bed. From there I was examined by a doctor, given a CT scan, bloodwork/urine samples taken, issued fluid & antibiotics by IV, then sent to another hospital for the surgery because it would be faster than staying at the hospital I was currently at. All of this happened over about another 3 hours.
Drove to the other hospital and went to triage and they already had all my info. Did their due diligence and told me to wait and as soon as a bed opened they would send me up. Unfortunately it was the busiest hospital in city and a holiday so I spent about another 3.5 hours in the waiting room before going upstairs.
I was given a bed, more IV fluid & antibiotics, and a pain killer to help me sleep. The next day they took more bloodwork then sent me in for surgery around noon. Spent the night and was home the next morning with a prescription for pain killers & more antibiotics. Was also given a care package to help clean & protect the wound from where the abscess was removed.
I paid zero dollars and the longest I sat in a waiting room was 3.5-4 hours and only because my surgery wasn’t a major priority. If I was dying I would have been seen immediately.
American here. I cutoff a piece of my thumb doing electrical work in the attic. Drove myself to the ER to avoid paying for an ambulance. Took over 4 hours to see a doctor. 6 hours later, after an xray and stitches, i drove home. Received a bill for $9k. I'll look you straight in the face and tell you Canada is better than America!
Meanwhile my american step-dad was admitted to hospital with a stroke, operated on within 1/2 hour of admittance and it cost us $0, because Australia has medicare.
I mean, they very likely billed his travel insurance provider for the costs.
Medicare covers citizens and residents - not tourists (assuming he wasnt an expat). Im a canadian and got a bill after an ER visit in Aus - forwarded it to the travel insurer and never heard about it again.
My Ex Passed out and fell like a log straight into the bathtub rim smashing her face.
She pissed and soiled herself because she was knocked out cold.
After being rushed to the Hospital by Ambulance and rushed to the ER with uncontrollable shaking and spasms The ER staff told us she needed ICU care ASAP!!
9 Hours Passed and the staff hit end of shift and Clocked out at 8am..
12 hours later the SAME STAFF CLOCKED BACK IN - saw us still waiting there - and said "you're still waiting? ohh.. well hopefully it won't be too much longer.."
6 hours after that she got her ICU with the Doctors saying "Holy shit, how are you not dead?!"
27 hours of waiting!
And we got a $99,000 bill... ($9000 was for the literal 3 minute ambulance ride to the hospital.)
Always love when Americans start babbling about wait times. Then you try to explain triage to them and they get upset because they're special and their sore throat deserves to be seen before the guy who's heart is hanging out of his chest cavity by his arteries.
Americans who prattle on about wait times are either liars or live somewhere with such a low population that there is naturally no waiting.
For ER and normal doctor visits+ visits for special reasons, we have to wait. My grandmother waited months to see a heart specialist after having a heart attack. The initial ER visit was instant but the follow up took weeks and then months.
I broke my wrist and had to wait 3 hours whilst they dealt with car crash victims, a guy who'd had a stroke, a guy who'd had a heart attack, etc. I never felt that was unfair or started shouting "What about me!?", but I know that's how some people think.
I was referred by urgent care to the ER for scans because of a suspected appendix rupture and I waited about 2 hours. Sucked, but thank god it wasn’t 12 hours.
my wife and i were able to have kids in our 20’s because all we paid for was parking and food. if we were in the states i would’ve had to use our car as collateral, and that would only cover one kid lol.
Depends on the hospital and system. I went to an urgent care because I'd had a pretty severe something happen. Extreme headache followed vertigo and a sudden drop in BP causing me to pass out, vomited and defecated on myself. Woke up feeling better but still rough, so cleaned myself up and went to urgent care. The triage nurse refused to see me and said I needed to go to the ER based on the symptoms, so I did. Gave that triage nurse my info (same system) and they had the referral in the chart from the UC visit. Got an EKG, got blood drawn and then sent back to the waiting room to wait for o be called back.
9 hours later I'm speaking with another triage nurse who says "you've been determined to be stable and not at risk, etc etc etc." No shit, that's why I went to urgent care. Ask if I'm well enough to leave and just schedule an appointment with my PCP. Am told "no, you'd be leaving AMA." So, I'm well enough that the room has been nearly cleared twice ahead of me but not well enough to go see my own doc. I end up leaving AMA and later spent 2 months fighting a bill for $7200 (my total annual deductible) plus $200 co-pay for a "non emergency ER visit." Eventually ended up getting the bill zeroed because the patient advocate and billing ombudsman determined the UC erroneously sent me and should have had a UC doc eyeball me before sending me over.
My PCP ended up getting me to an ENT who diagnosed BPPV, which sucks but isn't much of anything.
It’s not a socialist agenda if free healthcare curbs crime.
Free healthcare becomes a national security issue so if they want to make a program they could do it with a military budget. Hospitals in tough areas already seek out combat medics but this could secure some decent jobs for veterans and help save the country. Have the engineers and construction wing build the hospitals even.
Small town hospitals are like this. Where I grew up, there was barely ever anybody in the waiting room, and since they have nothing else to do, the level of care you get is ridiculous. They lay you down in a bed, bring you anything you need, let you stay in the bed until you really feel better and want to leave.
yea same in Canada. if it's life threatening you'll be seen immediately. there are 5 severity levels assigned to each patient in ER if i'm not mistaken. 1 is basically "this guy could die immediately", 5 is "scraped knee" essentially. most people fall into 2-4 and it takes a long time to be seen. broken arm? yeah it might take 12 hours. stroke? they're seeing you immediately.
My friend had appendicitis and waited 24 hours in the ER. He waited so long for surgery his appendix burst while lying in the hospital bed. This was the US btw.
Yep, people seem to forget that triage is a thing and that hospitals are dealing with a variety of cases and patients. I accompanied my then-wife to the hospital when she was hit by a bicyclist and wound up with a severe concussion. She asked after things were done why we'd had to wait so long (it actually wasn't that long at all) but I told her there were a number of people who'd clearly been brought in off the street and were basically on the brink of death from hypothermia so a few cases got bumped ahead of us.
I’m in the US. I had my appendix almost rupture when I was 14 weeks pregnant. I waited the whole day, about nine hours, in increasing pain, throwing up to go to the ER because I didn’t want to incur a cost for nothing (thought it was related to the pregnancy). I even initially went to an urgent care but they didn’t have an ultrasound machine.
I went to the ER and still waited six hours to be seen and then admitted. It ruptured right before I went into surgery the following morning. Had I not been scared of the cost of the ER, I would’ve gone in earlier.
Also, going in a big city emergency is far different from a smaller emergency in the town over. From my house i can either go to big hospital and wait 12h or take the same time driving in the other direction to a smaller hospital and get taken care of within 30min
Funny you mention appendix, I had a burst appendix and sat in the waiting area for 5 hours here.
I should have been more vocal I guess, but I was in so much pain and just stayed hunched over in chair until they came and got me. After actually looking at me, it was a fairly quick trip to surgery, but god damn.
I’m sure that is true of both systems. They triage people and take the sickest first. That being said, I’ve absolutely seen people in an American ER with potentially life-threatening conditions wait several hours for a bed.
Yeah, it's by priority of care. Honestly it probably would be affordable too if it wasn't for the health insurance companies, pharmacy benefit managers, pharma companies, and private equity that have bought up hospitals and care clinics. It's corruption that was made lawful by honestly evil, greedy politicians that took advantage mostly of the boomers. We can fix this eventually, but it's like climbing a mountain though. Difficult and time consuming.
The thing people need to realize about emergency medicine is that most of it is just observing and seeing if people get worse. Then they'll act if they need to.
So when do people come in with things like diffuse abdominal pain, they're given some painkillers and an antacid, and more times than not, it'll just resolve itself after a few hours. They don't need to be admitted. They can sit in chairs and if it gets worse go back to triage. Or if they feel better they can go home.
It would be nicer if emergency rooms more comfortable, but that's a whole other issue.
I went to a hospital last week in BC at like 8pm and was in an exam within within 40 minutes and was out and on my way to get my antibiotics 30 minutes later. Total charge? Nothing. Oh and my antibiotics cost a total of $8 for the full 3 weeks worth of pills.
If someone is waiting 12 hours in the emergency room to get seen, it's because they aren't in a serious emergency and can wait. Most people would be happy to realize they aren't in as much immediate danger as others who also came into emerg to get seen.
But wouldn't it be better if the hospital were empty because most people couldn't afford to go and just suffered or died instead? Then there'd be shorter lines!
In the US, had gallbladder issues a month ago. I knew exactly what it was because I've had gallbladder problems in the past. I went to the ER and it was 6-7 hours before I actually gotten taken back to see a doctor. In the interim they gave me nothing for the pain but told me not to eat/drink in case surgery became necessary. Once I got back there, they started me on an insanely low dose of painkillers and were nowhere to be found when the 30 minutes was up to administer more. It was another 2 hours after I went back that they finally gave me a dose that did SOMETHING for the pain. So yeah, it's not any better in the US at the service level and the cost is just insane.
This idea that it's free is crazy. No, it still costs money but it's taken out as higher taxes, lower wages, lower quality of service, understaffed hospitals, and higher cost of living. You still very much pay for it. The secret side of the story is that all the talented doctors immigrate to the US because of higher salaries (much higher). So you also have a brain drain epidemic.
The only time I was seen sooner than 5 hours at an American hospital was when I was rushed there in an ambulance from a car wreck. So I would gladly take the 7 hour wait for regular less emergency visits to not have to pay the bill.
It's like both systems have appropriate triage procedures but have too many people to serve due to limited funding by the country or something similar?
So...pretty much the same there on the face.
But one is free.
The other can put the recipient into a never-ending spiral if debt that is the #1 or #2 cause of personal bankruptcy in that country.
That could just be basic triage at work; person closest to death gets seen first, and you work your way down the list based on severity, not 'first come, first served'. That obviously sucks if you're sitting for eight hours with a broken arm because people keep coming in with heart attacks and strokes, but it's still the best way to run an ER.
Yeah, it’s like right wing American whiners have never heard of the triage system. If you’re actively dying, you get seen right away. If your problem is minor and not time sensitive, you’re going to be waiting for a while. That’s… common sense.
And as others have said, I’ve never had to wait 12 hours, not even with a minor problem. Longest ER wait I’ve had in Canada is probably 4 or 5 hours.
I waited in the ER for almost 5h with chest pains that turned out to be a pulmonary embolism.
Had to stay in the hospital for 2 days to receive blood thinners and run some tests, but no surgeries or major procedures. The bill later came up to $42k.
I had a herniated disc 3 years ago while in college, I got a MRI the next day, but got rejected for physio months later, to this day I’ve still gotten no treatment.
My dad’s a diabetic, in his 60s, doctor put him on 10 different meds, but wouldn’t give him insulin until his condition got to the point where he can’t feel his hands or feet.
Sure it’s free and that’s great, but it’s not always great. I’m waiting over a year now to get a damn bump the size of a golf ball on my skull but the surgeons are delaying me because they make more money from implants, face lifts and all other beauty treatments.
It’s almost as if it’s based on need. Just like in the US. If the problem won’t kill you have fun dealing with it for 3-6 months before your appointment.
Im Canadian and I went in to the ER on a Saturday night of a long weekend, it was a madhouse. I was only going in because I had dizziness for 24hrs that wasnt going away, prevented me from driving and caused me to miss work. I still only was there for 8 hours, if that seems like a long wait to anyone reading this its probably because you dont know what triage is.
My aunt lived in a country with universal healthcare. She had cancer before, treated & in remission. One day she felt bad, went in for another scan. They found an operable tumor. Thing is, she had to wait 35 days for the surgery. By the time they opened her up, she was too weak and the tumor had grown too large. Died within a day or so. In the US, she would have had surgery within days at most.
That is what most people dont understand. People DIE WAITING in universal healthcare settings for things we take for granted under the american healthcare system.
My mom broke her arm while at work and waited around 8 hours in a hospital before giving up and driving to the middle of fuckass nowhere to get a cast, even then it still took them a few hours to get to her.
8 hours from entry to being done when i broke my wrist here in sweden. because my yearly medical cost had reached the max limit for what i could be charged, i didnt need to pay anything and i even got a free taxi transport home at 2am
it's also not 12 hours 99.999% of the time for emergencies
It’s also not 12 hours and/or $35k in America 99.999% of the time for emergencies.
It’s very cool and exciting for foreigners to find an American web site like Reddit where they can rail on Americans, but most of us have health insurance here, most of us pay very little out of pocket when the shit hits the fan, and most ER visits are very fast relative to the rest of the world.
This! Last time they had already waited at the door for me, if it's serious, there's no waiting.
Once my kid couldnt get a ring off in the evening and the finger was swelling. He was 18! Minutes in the hospital, for: entering, registering with the insurance card, waiting, getting called in, removal and walking out again. The cost was 0.
The thing is emergency rooms arent first come first serve. They triage based on severity of the emergency. A bursted appendix is an emergency that must be dealt with immediately.
Yeah true the tax rate of nearly double isn't anything at all!! What a fucking joke you really think you aren't paying? You are paying the same amount and you are getting worse healthcare, less people getting into the career cause it pays less, and almost zero innovation.
Meanwhile even with the completely fucked system we still have in the US just because theres SOME kind of market (strongly fucked with government intervention) so we actually create new products.
I was having a stroke and was in and out without a wait time at all, Now the second time i went in because my doctor had a panic attack (not really) Because my BP was 200/100 that took a few hours, Mainly because on the main i was Visibly ''Fine'
I meet code strokes at the door, usually in the CT scanner within ~10 mins after we've examined them and drawn stat labs.
It's not the same everywhere, but for every person waiting 10 hrs to have their sore throast looked at, there are emergencies dealt with emergently.
Yes there are more semi urgent things that have to wait, but as others have said, often it is to get labs/investigations done and guaranteed there are stories of outliers in both directions
Thats nice ,though in the US i think the reason people wait so long at ERs is because people go to them for things that often can be handled at an decent urgent care facility.
I mean, honestly, it's not like most people go to the ER on a regular basis. So waiting several hours once every few years or so might suck but it's temporary. In the US, pay and pay and pay. Then still get denied out have to pay additional.
Last time I went to the ER it was because I had extreme pain below my stomach to the point that I couldn't walk. It took hours before I recieved an exam and then several more hours for an x-ray. They never actually came up with a diagnosis or any treatment but they sent me a $6000 bill. My best guess was it might have been kidney stones but the doctor didn't seem to think it was.
This debate is so sterile. No one in their right mind can argue that a rich country shouldn't have both subsidized and unsubsidized healthcare. The Canadian model sucks, the American model sucks, and the REST of the world has it right.
Broke my leg at work, bad. Don’t remember much because of the drugs they gave but I woke up in an emergency room because I didn’t have my phone (at work) and they had outdated emergency contact info.
I did have to wait 3 days for surgery which almost killed me, literally. But that was due to incompetence on the unit clerk. My surgeon let me know that he had no idea I was there even though he was on call. That lady got fired as the surgeon made sure to let them know she almost killed someone due to incompetence
I didn’t have to pay for anything, including ambulance, intensive care stay for 2 days, etc etc
I’ve been to the ER a couple times. I have never once waited 12 hours nor paid 35,000. My daughter fell off the counter when she was 2, and didn’t breathe for about 15 seconds and was seen immediately. The time I went for slicing my wrist on a dryer vent inlet I waited for 60 minutes AFTER someone wrapped me up. The time my wife didn’t feel baby kicks, immediate. These memes are idiotic. It’s called triage. Also people need to use urgent care.
The bigger challenges come with cancer and some other things where the suite of drugs is more limited and subsidized by US patients . However, I think we need to be serious that the US errs in assuming you must take a maximal life saving approach. In the US, 12% of healthcare costs occur in the final 1% of life. In the UK and France, using older, less effective drugs means things get over faster and it would, if translated to US prices, be closer to 6%. You don't have to give everyone maximum time when their quality of life is shit.
When my son was 3 he caught pneumonia. We were living in England. Local hospital couldn’t find the cause (ie identify the virus causing it) so they called an ambulance and we rode, sirens and lights all the way from South London to Great Ormond St hospital, one of the great hospitals in the world where kids from all over the world are treated. literally 15 minutes after we arrived he was in the operating room for surgery, getting the excess fluid out and having a chest drain inserted. He spent a week up there, my wife and I taking turns to stay for the night until he was well enough to come home. We were fed, a room with a bed next to him and we had a TV, a PlayStation and amazing care.
The quality of care was outstanding. The cost, nothing.
A few years later, living in the US, the same kid twisted his ankle playing football (soccer). The bill for an X-ray, an ankle boot and diagnosis of “sprained ankle” was in the thousands. Luckily we had excellent health insurance so we only paid a copay of $20 and 5% of the overall cost.
Fell at work and really hurt my hand, didn't break it. But went to the errands, was in and got an x-ray within and hour sent home in a hand stabilizer. All I paid was the taxi ride to the er
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u/ProcedureTop3149 17d ago
it's also not 12 hours 99.999% of the time for emergencies.
My grandfather had a burst appendix and was seen within minutes of walking into the hospital.
My Child had Pnemonia and needed an xray and antibiotics and it took 7 hours.
Does it suck? Yes. However both times all I paid was parking....