How would you rate your overall healthcare experience and where you from?

[Doctor Amadeus]

How would you rate your overall healthcare experience and where you from?

From Minneapolis Born and Raised also grew up in Winnipeg, as a child I have had experience in both the U.S and Canada

U.S

As a child it was pretty great, as a younger adult it was pretty horrid.

Canada

As a Child and Pre Teen is was great, as a Younger adult to adult Much better than the U.S

What grade would you give your healthcare and access where you are?

U.S

Overall I would give it D+ especially as a young adult or someone who is poor or doesn't have insurance they have paid into for a while and even then it's not great.

Canada

Overall I would give a B- as a Young adult is great both countries have first rate technology and ability to care however the problem comes from administration and politics. I would say the Nurses Union situation in Canada is way out of hand and while I am sure I will not be popular with this but the U.S and Canada have a low quality and expensive nurse problem.

[eoyeffteedubz]

I’m from Ontario Canada and I’m 25. I gave our healthcare an A+ but I believe I’ve been lucky with my medical professionals/my own health (knock on wood). Just a great family doctor who really seems to care about my well being and understanding who I am as a person. I can call any day of the week, at 8:00am ideally, and be booked in that same week. The office has appointment slots kept closed until the day of that are booked on a first come first serve basis in addition to regular booked check-ups/annual appointments. So if you wake up for work at 6:30 and realize your sick then just call the office at 8 when it opens. Get an appointment that same day, get your antibiotics or w.e, and start healing. Thats pretty great service imo.

[Unholyground]

The east coast provinces get fucked now which is unfortunate. So many people I know are getting screwed over due to the senior crisis plus lack of new doctors. We have more seniors than young now.

[unbound]

US - takes at least a month just to schedule appointments anymore. If you need surgery, you have to wait until they run it through insurance first and then provide the money up front of what they predict you'll owe. To add icing to the cake, while you are recovering, you get to deal with the billing department consistently screwing up the bills which takes several months to iron out.

And the doctors are no better or worse than the doctors in any other advanced economic country.

US healthcare is pretty okay if you can afford it and live in or near a major city. It is abysmal if you are poor or rural. Doctors are actually putting up periodic camp cities in rural areas to provide treatment for them. The poor people usually get treated and then condemned to a bill collector for the rest of their lives.

[Rozz]

US - takes at least a month just to schedule appointments anymore. If you need surgery, you have to wait until they run it through insurance first and then provide the money up front of what they predict you'll owe. To add icing to the cake, while you are recovering, you get to deal with the billing department consistently screwing up the bills which takes several months to iron out.

And the doctors are no better or worse than the doctors in any other advanced economic country.

US healthcare is pretty okay if you can afford it and live in or near a major city. It is abysmal if you are poor or rural. Doctors are actually putting up periodic camp cities in rural areas to provide treatment for them. The poor people usually get treated and then condemned to a bill collector for the rest of their lives.

This is why I voted for C.

They'll take care of you so you won't die, but you'll want to for all you'll have to deal with before/after the fact.

[Raeph]

This is why I voted for C.

They'll take care of you so you won't die, but you'll want to for all you'll have to deal with before/after the fact.

Same. I live in a rural area about 130 miles from the nearest good size city (Oklahoma City).

General and Preventative care is accessible if you have insurance or are on a state program. You can most times get an appointment to a specialist within two months for non-emergent issues. Emergencies can have in in OKC for critical care within 3 hours of the incident by helicopter.

The issue is specialist primary care. If you need more than an yearly physical, pediatric, or geriatric care or if your pregnancy is considered high risk, you might as well move to OKC because travel costs to your appointments will eat you alive.

My wife is a type two diabetic and it took about two years of work at the Harold Hamm Center at OU med center to get her sugar under control. She is fine now and stable, with her condition being managed by her primary care dr after consultations with the specialists. Those two years we spent about $2500 a year on travel and hotel expenses and got to the point where I had to liquidate my 401k from a previous job to cover medical and travel expenses. This didn't include copays, deductibles and premiums for insurance.

That is the big thing about health care in the United States compared to other countries. The country has a large rural population and when we talk about rural in the US we don't mean you have good scenery and but you have to drive 30 mins to hit a nearby town of size where you can get anything you need at any other modern western city.

No, we are talking 2-3 hour drives to the nearest major city and if you can't get there then you are restricted to primary care or emergency care only.

And that doesn't even mention the issues with the natural urban demands on the healthcare system either, which comes with their own challenges.

[Ghostpanther]

I would rate ours a A . We have our health insurance which has decent coverage and catastrophic coverage, which means we can never pay more than 6,500 in a calendar year for out of pocket expenses. My wife has a lot of health issues and takes several drugs. Her one expensive drug, Lyrica, just went generic this summer, which saves us $45 a month on that one alone. Our insurance premium this year, went down for the first time ever. Not had any issues with having provider doctors and medical facilities available within a 50 mile radius.

Myself, I use a local VA clinic, which has been great. No co pay for seeing a doctor and all drugs, no matter if name brand or what, only cost me $11. I do not take any drugs and have no major health issues other than I am getting old, with all the crap which comes with it. But overall the VA has treated me very well each time I have had to go there. Which I have to get a 18 month check up on a regular bases to keep the service they provide.

[Draco-Onis]

This is why I voted for C.

They'll take care of you so you won't die, but you'll want to for all you'll have to deal with before/after the fact.

The best health care in the US is the socialism kind (medicare, medicaid, VA etc), everything else is subpar.

[Queen of Hamsters]

D Minus?? I was aiming for B Plus...

Just past the middle enough to be in the North of Sweden. Whilst the mental healthcare is in a bit of a sad state, I get to see doctors and get treatment same as always, rarely waiting. Am having a tallow gland removed next week. Won't cost me more than 20 euro (the standard fee).

Meanwhile, some counties made the smort decision of changing the company keeping them supplied, and as a result 5 counties have had to cancel operations due to lack of necessary equipment. That's what happens when you go with the cheapest offer. Hopefully there's some real consequences to the company not fulfilling its promises, and the people deciding on said company.

[Cruor]

USA. A. I'm in good health, and if I need a dental appointment or doctor appointment I can schedule it for that week. Health insurance through work. Get a job and you get healthcare. Sit at home playing wow and you dont. Why is this so hard for people?

[Lane]

Get a job and you get healthcare. Sit at home playing wow and you dont. Why is this so hard for people?

I've worked in several industries and, in my experience, health insurance through work is rare and the few companies that have offered it you have to pay about as much for it as you would if you had your own private policy.

[Lochton]

My overall healthcare experience has always been great. I'm from one of those countries that some American politicians don't like, Denmark.

[lagiacrux]

austria: B

pretty happy with my healthcare all around.

[Zan15]

So far the ACA has been great. Its cheaper then the coverage i got from my employer (who was a fucking health insurance company) and better coverage/cost sharing.

My rates are going down about 1.5% this year, will hardly notice it but better than the 10-20% every year prior to ACA.

I would rate ours a A . We have our health insurance which has decent coverage and catastrophic coverage, which means we can never pay more than 6,500 in a calendar year for out of pocket expenses. My wife has a lot of health issues and takes several drugs. Her one expensive drug, Lyrica, just went generic this summer, which saves us $45 a month on that one alone. Our insurance premium this year, went down for the first time ever. Not had any issues with having provider doctors and medical facilities available within a 50 mile radius.

Myself, I use a local VA clinic, which has been great. No co pay for seeing a doctor and all drugs, no matter if name brand or what, only cost me $11. I do not take any drugs and have no major health issues other than I am getting old, with all the crap which comes with it. But overall the VA has treated me very well each time I have had to go there. Which I have to get a 18 month check up on a regular bases to keep the service they provide.

Must be nice to benefit from that socialist healthcare program....that your party hates and refuses to give to everyone else
and soon you will get that other socialist healthcare program, Medicare.

[Bodonius]

A
But if a new illness there is a 6+ months wait to met a doctor.

[Theodarzna]

Healthcare services in the US are some of the worst nightmares of abject frustration ever conceived by gibbering insane Gods whose unending madness is a plague upon the spirits of the people of this cursed country.

Anyone who has ever interfaced with it, pre- or post- Obamacare can attest to the insane annoyance and complexity of it. Even the Obamacare changes did little to mediate the awfulness of it, and given that private insurance schemes remain, the system is woefully inadequate and byzantine in frustration.

Truth be told the Obamacare bureaucrat I first met when the law first came into being ripped me and my family off, giving us faulty information that come tax time cost us money since we weren't informed of how you update your income level every time it changes. He also intentionally enrolled me in healthcare that was more expensive because I was leaving my job to go university. Costing me what? HUNDREDS?. Open enrollment is time gated. Trying to get ahold of anyone to ask questions is a bitter process and in California the fucking Covered California phone system is designed to boil your blood with anger as it aggravates you with repetitive information instead of just dumb but admittedly less obnoxious Musak.

The fact that Americans remain loyal to this awful system instead of a clean, simple, and useful National Health Service is utterly insane to me.

[zenkai]

U.S

Overall I would give it D+ especially as a young adult or someone who is poor or doesn't have insurance they have paid into for a while and even then it's not great.
.

US I give it a B, before ACA I give it an A.

When I was in college, my wife was pregnant, we were poor as fuck, taking out student loans to go to college we didn't hardly pay shit for having my son. My wife even got to get on WIC and we had our child at a good hospital. The only medical issue with my son we had was jaundice, they came out and set up ultraviolet light contraption for him to sleep in. Mom said they use just tell you to put the kid in sunlight lol

Since the passing of ACA my premiums shot up, what I pay out of pocket shot up, I was better off before that. The quality of my healthcare is great just the cost sucks.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Healthcare services in the US are some of the worst nightmares of abject frustration ever conceived by gibbering insane Gods whose unending madness is a plague upon the spirits of the people of this cursed country.

Anyone who has ever interfaced with it, pre- or post- Obamacare can attest to the insane annoyance and complexity of it. Even the Obamacare changes did little to mediate the awfulness of it, and given that private insurance schemes remain, the system is woefully inadequate and byzantine in frustration.

Truth be told the Obamacare bureaucrat I first met when the law first came into being ripped me and my family off, giving us faulty information that come tax time cost us money since we weren't informed of how you update your income level every time it changes. He also intentionally enrolled me in healthcare that was more expensive because I was leaving my job to go university. Costing me what? HUNDREDS?. Open enrollment is time gated. Trying to get ahold of anyone to ask questions is a bitter process and in California the fucking Covered California phone system is designed to boil your blood with anger as it aggravates you with repetitive information instead of just dumb but admittedly less obnoxious Musak.

The fact that Americans remain loyal to this awful system instead of a clean, simple, and useful National Health Service is utterly insane to me.

Probably the only time I have ever sort of agreed with you, although I believe Obamacare made things better, it also made things worse because of the push back from conservatives.

[Theodarzna]

Probably the only time I have ever sort of agreed with you, although I believe Obamacare made things better, it also made things worse because of the push back from conservatives.

While Obamacare was a slightly less terrible version, it suffered from being a policy beloved and designed for and by wonks. That made the policy radically unpopular for the general public who both WILL NEVER and unless they are insane, CAN NEVER appreciate complex arcane bureaucracy nor does anyone have time or patience to read through and navigate the bizarre structures of the marketplace without help; and as my experience shows I can't even trust the bureaucrat to translate this bullshit for me and not fuck me over.

And yeah, the fact that Obama caved to the insurance lobby without a fight, I'd argue with intent; he let Free Marketeers and Business goons write the bill. But I'm in Thomas Franks camp on Obama now, that Obama did that by design. He never intended nor wanted a national health service. The policy failed IMHO from a combined effort of Insurance industry lobbying; his own lack of will to do a National Health Service; and his cabinet being stuffed with Neo-Liberal econ flunkies who were still jacking off to the "Free Market" even after their ilk had caused 2008.

The fact that the GOP was able to do anything despite having no power at the time is a testament to the utter spineless cowardice or duplicity of Obama.

[Jonnusthegreat]

Probably 2/10. USA.

I'm a healthy, no condition white male. I should not have to care about it, but I do. I don't go to the doctor because of fear of costs. What kind of joke is this shit? It's so overcomplicated.