…
Private insurance companies have earned the public’s distrust. They routinely put profitability above their policyholders’ well-being. And a system of private health insurance provision also has higher administrative costs than a single-payer system, in which the government is the sole insurer.
But the avarice and inefficiencies of private insurers are not the sole — or even primary — reasons why vital medical services are often unaffordable and inaccessible in the United States. The bigger issue is that America’s health care providers — hospitals, physicians, and drug companies — charge much higher rates than their peers in other wealthy nations.
…
I’m an American and I have to wait months to see a specialist. I think I’ll take my chances with socialized healthcare.
What kills me is this was literally the prime complaint against socialized healthcare. Then the covid lockdown hit and suddenly it takes 3 months for me to get an appointment with my primary doctor.
10 years before COVID I had to change primary care doctors because he was scheduled 3 months out. It got way worse after COVID, but the argument about long wait times was always overblown.
Yep. Me too. Took me nine months to get a new neurologist when my old one retired.
Edit: Apparently there are at least three fans of the American capitalist healthcare system.
My specialist won’t even see patients anymore. You have to schedule to see a medical assistant, and even that is 12 months out.
I think it was a five month wait to see if I had cancer. Luckily it wasn’t a bad one, eh?