Ask Lemmy

Australia, Canberra

Zero cost, 10 to 20 minute wait, no wait if my appointment is early in the day, 20 minutes if it's in the afternoon

Switzerland

Depends a bit on the plan you have. Generally I would call the clinic registered with my health insurance or fill in their online form to make an appointment. Depending on what it is you get an appointment within the week, but for more pressing issues it's usually on the same day.

If it's an emergency I can go to any hospital or clinic, but depending on my insurance I would be transfered after the acute symptoms are taken care of.

If for some reason I'm not anywhere close to my registered clinic, I have to call a 24/7 number to get a referral to a doctor nearby.

Prices are reasonable for the high level in Switzerland. Deductibles limits handle how much you have to pay out of pocket, so it rarely fucks you up.

The real issue is the ever increasing insurance premiums. They are not tied to your income level, but to where you live, your gender and age. Poorer people get support by the government, but that's just tax money flowing directly into private insurance companies.

German here.

If I'm sick I just go to their practice during consultation hours. Without an appointment I have to wait a little, but rarely more than an hour. Then I get called in, the doctor takes a couple minutes to listen to me describing my symptoms, possibly does some minor checking, then writes me a prescription for whatever treatment I will need or a transfer slip to a specialized doctor.

For emergencies I can just go to the hospital. Oh, all of this costs me nothing at all, maybe a couple euros co pay for medications.

Thailand. Private pay.

Take a ride share car to the private hospital.

Greeted by concierge when I walk in. She asks why I'm here and then directs me to another desk on another floor.

Entering the next room feels a bit like a hotel lobby. There are big sofas and comfortable lighting. It feels cozy even though it's a large space. There's a Starbucks. Another concierge approaches me. I explain why I'm here and I'm sat down and handed an iPad where I can fill in some medical background. They have my record from a previous visit so it's quick. I confirm that I will pay with a credit card instead of using any insurance.

In about 10 minutes I'm brought to a room where a nurse catches my weight and blood pressure. Then I'm brought to the patient exam room.

A few minutes later the doctor comes in and performs his examination. He makes his diagnosis types some notes into his computer. He asks me to come back for a follow-up in one week and pick up my prescription on the way out.

Leaving the exam room, another nurse catches me to hand me the diagnosis paperwork and points me to the pharmacy.

I walk to the pharmacy and hand them my paperwork. They collect my payment for the whole visit and ask me to wait until my name is called to pick up the prescription.

About 10 minutes later the prescription is ready and I'm out the door with a small bag of drugs and about $125 out of my wallet.

The service is comprehensive and everything is available in one building. For this country it's a bit expensive but you feel like you're very well taken care of and it's instant.

France

Most GPs afaik are liberal -they have their own private office instead of working in the confines of a hospital-, and there's three different possible cost levels, whether or not the GP adheres to what's called the "convention" with social security (which fixes prices for typical medical acts), adheres partly, or does not adhere at all (pretty rare). Full adherence to the convention means the base consultation costs 30e, and makes sure the patient is reimbursed to 70% of that cost with basic universal healthcare (=you have to pay 10e from your own pocket), the rest being covered by their (highly regulated) private insurance if they have one. I have a pretty standard one at 35e/month which ensures I get reimbursed for pretty much all acts. I am getting treated for a cavity and a fill replacement next week at no cost for me.

Australia

• for non-urgent regular things book with my GP in an app (pretty sure that’s the case for most GPs too). usually an appointment within a few days; sometimes he’s booked out for a couple of weeks, but if i don’t feel like waiting i can book anywhere else. when i go to my appointment, tests etc are all free. i go to a private clinic so i pay $75AUD (~$50USD) and the govt reimburses me $45 of that - public clinics are free but i go to a speciality clinic
• for non-urgent sick things (or anything really - scripts etc too; i just use it when i don’t want to go to my GP) we have home doctor service: you book in an app and a doctor will come to your house the same day - free
• for specialists the waiting period can depend on what it is, but i have had a 3mo wait for a specialist before :(… usually you go to your GP, get a referral, see a specialist, then perhaps have surgery if necessary. it can be a months long wait for surgeries which is not great, buuuuut it’s also great to go in for day surgery in the morning, and just leave later that day without paying a cent
• for emergency, unfortunately you can be waiting for a few hours… they triage you so i’m sure if it’s a real issue you wouldn’t keep you waiting but for things like potentially broken bones you can be waiting for up to 3hr… it’s all free
• for ambulance it differs per state but in my state (victoria) they aren’t - it’s ~$1400 for an emergency trip. you can also buy ambulance membership for $53/y and it’s free

pretty much anything where i’ve talked about costs or free you give them your medicare (federal health system for everyone - not just low income etc) details and they bill the govt a set amount for time and materials used. GP clinics etc store it on file so sometimes you can just walk out without talking to anyone

United Kingdom (Bristol.)

Used to be pretty decent, but now the NHS is chronically overbooked and underfunded. Ambulances can take hours to come.

Only way to get a GP appointment is to literally call my practice at 8AM on the dot, wait in the queue and hope you're lucky to have your call answered before all the appointments are gone. There is no online booking system, and if you call at any other time, they won't be able to book you in advance unless you're willing to wait months.

My dad (80 years old) has had to go to hospital a few times in the past few years for various reasons, and the longest he's had to wait to be admitted into a ward was 13 hours. He had a hip replacement operation two years ago where he was on an 18 month waiting list.

It's pretty much bullshit, you just get ignored or condescended to by assholes who want you out of their office so they can get the next "billable" in. When you demand competent attention, they just use their knowledge of the system to fuck with you. I had a doctor write me out a prescription the pharmacist took away, hiding the evidence of the doctor writing out a female hormone prescription rather than an appropriate treatment. 3 year wait list for a specialist, turned up they day of to find it had been cancelled a year prior. No recourse, can't contact these people by phone, when you trick the accounting dept to put you through to the office you had the appointment with, they lose their shit on you. STD check request? You get some moron demanding to know why you feel the need for testing. Canada, btw. I haven't had health insurance in 9 years, the first 6 because that province I lived i flat out refused to issue a health card, and the last three i this province, just because I am so over their bullshit I no longer care, I ever get hurt bad enough again need help, I'll worry about it then I guess. They just tend to let you die anyways, as far as diseases, injuries they'll do what they can, but cancer and the like they wait you out.

in my city (southeastern Brazil) we have two facilities for public healthcare: the emergency center (UPA - unidade de pronto atendimento, emergency medical unit) and the family health center (UBS - unidade básica de saúde, basic health unit)

at the UBS I can see a doctor or a nurse, get prescriptions, get referred to specialists and exams/tests, IST tests, and so forth, if I'm not in meed of urgent care

at the UPA I can be treated (rather) quickly if I'm in an emergency

a few weeks ago my uncle had a heart attack. it was nothing serious, thankfully. we called the ambulance and in 5 minutes they were here, he was treated quickly, sent to another city nearby for emergency catheterism and angioplasty, and he paid a total amount of zero reais for everything

I love SUS (sistema universal de saúde - universal healthcare system)

Like going to a post office.

You walk in, show your health ID, get treated, then leave.

Edit: Assuming you're going to a hospital. Family doctor care is similar, although in my province they're contractors, and it can be hard to find one with an opening for new patients right now.

Brazil:

Call an Uber, go to the hospital, grab a ticket, pass thru triage, called by name, show my id, triage decide which specialist to see, go to specialist waiting room and wait to be called by name.

Doctor examines me, ask for exams, maybe prescribe medication, do the exams, wait for result.

Back to doctor, prescribe medication, hospital provides medication (unless is something very uncommon, if so go to the pharmacy and buy it).

Call Uber, go home.

Total cost: Uber fare, usually about 6 dollars total.

The Netherlands

I call my doctor, make an appointment the same day, go there, tell my story, get referred to a specialist or get meds or whatever, all covered by insurance.

Specialist: sometimes appointment within a week or 2, sometimes it takes a month. It's covered by insurance, but there's an own risk budget each year of 380 euros. So all costs up to that budget are paid by yourself, the rest is covered. But since I'm getting mental health care, I pay 380 each januari and the rest for the entire year is all covered. This year I've had a broken collarbone repaired with a metal plate with all the photos before and after, I had 2 bladder infections which needed antibiotics and I had food poisoning on holiday and intestand infection, which was all covered at home and abroad.

Insurance

I pay 180 a month. It includes dental and some extras like 9 physical therapist appointments.

I've lived in multiple places, so I'll talk about all of them.

Brazil

I lived in two places there, essentially you can choose between public or private systems.

Under the private system you would book an appointment with whatever doctor you wanted, usually one or two weeks in advance, pay them (which is relatively expensive depending on the doctor), have the consultation, they might ask for some exams (some of which are paid, others included), possibly get a prescription (that you would have to pay for yourself), possibly go back for a follow up appointment (included in the price you already paid).

On the public system you book an appointment, wait some time (months in some places, days in others), have your consultation (if the doctor is in that day), possibly get a prescription (that you would likely get for free), possibly go back for a follow up appointment.

Ireland

There's a public system, but you have to be below a certain income level to use it, otherwise you have to go through the private system. You have to register with your GP (most of which don't have available spots), for anything you first need to contact your GP (which usually takes a week), and pay €60, explain your problem and if they choose to forward you to and specialist (even if you go and say I need to see a cardiologist they might say "no, you do not", although that's unlikely), then they send an email to the specialist who only then accepts that you book with them (usually for a week or so later), then you have to pay the specialist (which is usually >€300), they might ask for some exams (which you have to book and pay on your own, some blood work I did was €700), they might give you a prescription (which is paid but there's a €80 cap on medicine per house per month, which is the only nice part of the whole system), and if you need a follow up it's usually €150. If you have health insurance (or at least mine was like this) they give you back 50% of all your expenses up to a certain limit.

Spain

I'm not too familiar with the options here because I have private insurance through my work and as you'll see I've had no reason to look elsewhere, but I've been told the public system is fairly similar. Whenever I need an appointment I open my insurance app or call a doctor office and ask if they take my insurance, book an appointment (usually for a week or two in advance), go there, show my id and insurance card, go to the appointment, if they ask for some exams I do them, if they give me a prescription I take it to a pharmacy and pay it out of pocket (this is the only part I know public system exists and is somewhat better because you get the drugs for free, but since I don't take any recurring prescriptions I haven't bothered to check), if I need a follow up I book it and go back. Never had to pay one cent for anything other than medicine. I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop and getting billed for all of the Dr appointments, but so far it hasn't happened hahaha

Norway, I book online if it's not urgent and wait a few weeks. If it's urgent I call them and get it same day. Costs about ~250 NOK or ~20 USD I think. Public doctors are always at least 45 minutes late (unless you are late if course, then they call you on time)

I also had a non-urgent matter, but felt like wait time was too long (holiday season) so I went to a private clinic, got appointment same day and paid about 700 NOK I think.

I go there, tell my story, if they need to take some samples they can usually do them on site right away for no additional charge.

If I need some medicine they prescribe that and tell me to come back in x weeks if it's not getting better.

If they can't help me I get a referral. It could take a long time to get certain procedures, especially if they are not urgent/very important, but most of the time it's been a few weeks for my issues.

UK. Phone local GP, no appointments available for ~3 weeks, maybe get a call back appointment in 2 weeks if I'm lucky. Alternative is to phone every morning between 0830-0900 and either not get through or be told there are still no appointments available.

I have found walk in pharmacists to be well educated (better than many GPs?!) and available without appointment so they're usually my first port of call.

Germany. When I am sick I call my doctor in the morning ask what time would be best to go there as to not wait too long. Then I go there, wait maybe an hour sometimes because he likes taking time for his patients, tell him my symptoms, get a sick note for work and possibly a prescription if I need medication.

I dont pay anything for the visit. If I need medication I will go to the pharmacy near my flat after the visit give them my health card, get my medication and depending on what drug I got pay a little bit, maybe 5€ , maybe a bit more.

East europe: Just use government level 2fa to sign into a health portal and send a message about your problem. It usually is answered within a few hous and you either get prescription or a checkup in a few days. If a specialist doctor is needed, wait times can be up to a year, unless you go the evil hypercapitalist route and pay them the price of happy meal to get a visit at a private clinic. All procedures are free or practically free. ER now costs like a tenner cause idiots would not fucking stop wasting their time with things like "oh I have a tick" and "oh my kid sneezed once"

Portugal

If it doesn't require immediate attention I call my health center. I can get an appointment with my family pshysician in a few days or, if it's more urgent, some other doctor will see me the same day but I'll have to wait there until one is free (can go anywhere between 15mn and 2 hours). I'm lucky though, some health centers suck really bad. The ones in big cities are generally better.

If it's more urgent I call the national health line and they'll A: tell me how to treat it myself B: set up an appointment in my health center (or another if mine is not available) C: send me straight to the closest emergency room.

Wait times in the emergency room depend on the gravity and the hospital. My hospital sucks. Low priority you'll spend there the whole day, easy. 10+ hours. Medium priority you'll wait 4 or 5 hours. High priority about an hour, maybe two. Very high priority (head falling off) you go right in. In good hospitals those times are much lower. In the major city I used to live I never waited more than 2 hours for any priority. I also had surgery there and it was great.

Never paid a cent, I think it goes without saying.

United Kingdom, Dorset.

My 3 year old daughter was vomiting and not keeping liquids down. Phoned the non-emergency line and after a bit of a wait, spoke to them and went through the script.

Was told to go to A&E and we would be expected. After a short wait there, was led down to the children's ward and she was given a bed in her own room. She was put on a drip, had antibiotics and kept in overnight. By the end of the following day she was able to keep down water and some toast so was discharged.

Had a follow on call from a GP the next day, she was back to normal in a couple of days.

Cost: £0 (I contribute to the NHS through general taxation)

Brazil, urban area, with a health plan (private healthcare)

I go to the doctor, grab a little paper with a number on it, wait for the number to be displayed on the monitor, go to the reception desk, give them my health plan card and my ID, they give those back to me, I sit back down and wait for the same number to be displayed on a different monitor. Once it's displayed, I go to the room number shown on the monitor and from there, I discuss what problem I have with an adequate specialist.

For an unplanned visit, the wait time is usually 5–30 minutes, depending on the hour and season (there are a lot of tourists during summer, meaning longer wait times and more people at the hospital).

I don't know about pricing (my parents pay for it), but it's probably not too expensive since we've never had financial problems due to health issues (as far as I'm aware).

I've never not went to the doctor for financial reasons, only for health concerns (worrying about getting sick with something else, specially if the waiting room is full or almost full). Sometimes prescribed medicine can be pretty expensive.

I call my Dr.

I book an appointment. If urgent but not medically urgent to my immediate wellbeing I can get in in a week or so.

If urgent, but not emergency, I can go to a clinic or the hospital non emergency (hospital can have wait times up to several hours)

If emergency and severe or traumatic injury or life threatening - emergency at hospital. Triage assesses need. Last time I had to take someone it was maybe a 20 minute wait - they had been hurt pretty bad - got jumped.

None of any of the above will cost me any money.

An ambulance, though, costs like 75$ if it is not life threatening.

Canada.

Sweden.

A few alternatives:

• I could book an appointment at the local health center. I would probably get a time at the earliest next week, and it would cost me $30. Health center doctors are generally quite overworked, and can sometimes be a bit dismissive of your issues in my experience, but they will help you. If you need specialist care, they will give you a referral, which could take several months depending on the priority of the case and the type of specialist.
• I could use an app to get access to a video call with a doctor, after having described my symptoms in the app. I would get a video call the same day and it would cost me $30. Given the remote nature of this kind of contact, they can be a bit limited in what they can do for you, but will try to help you regardless. If your case requires in-person examination, they will ask you to go to a health center instead. If you need specialist care, they will give you a referral and you'll have to wait the same amount of time as for a referral in the health center scenario.
• I am lucky enough to have a private health insurance plan through my employer. If I have any problems, I'll submit them to this private health insurer, and they put a human on the case and connects me with a specialist right away if the problem warrants one. Typically this happens the same or the next day. This costs me nothing, apart from what I pay in benefit taxes to be on the private health insurance plan.

All in all, things work fairly well in Sweden, but having gotten private health insurance has definitely jaded me a bit on account of how much better the experience is when you have that. If only the public system wasn't systematically underfunded and run by the dumbest politicians on offer in the country, then maybe everyone could have great patient experience.

Canada. It's generally easy and free (no direct cost to me). I try to avoid having to go to my doctor whenever possible and I live with a nurse (and my doc knows that). Usually when I send him a message, either by email or by calling, he'll have a follow up question or two (sometimes none) then decide a course of action and move right to implementation. Sometimes that's sending a script to my local pharmacy, sometimes that's a referral to a specialist. Who knows? I haven't seen the guy in years. But if he made the request for me to go in, I would without hesitation.

I know my experience isn't the same as others, since my doctor and my spouse have actually worked together; but still. It's all free and there's usually minimal waiting.

The only significant delays I've heard of in Canadian healthcare relate to major procedures when the issue is non-critical. Like getting an MRI as a precaution, to make sure things aren't messed up or something (IDK what MRIs are used to diagnose, I am not a doctor).

Everything is triaged, so if you're not actively dying from a thing, and you need a big piece of equipment to scan you to figure something out, you're going to be waiting a while.

From US and was visiting Singapore when I came down with a sinus infection.

Took the elevator from the government controlled housing to the ground floor.

Walked 5 minutes to the attached small community strip mall which consisted of cheap food options, a grocery/convenience store, and a number of essential stores including a small drs office.

Waited 15 minutes, saw the dr. Explained my condition, allergies and medication I usually take and went through the exam. We had to help look up some of the medication names.

Paid $35 for the exam. There was some confusion because I expected it to cost more and I asked about. They apologized and said that since I’m foreign I had to pay full price.

Walked across the mall to the small pharmacy. Waited 5 minutes for the antibiotics prescription. Paid maybe $5?

Bought some tea from the grocery and was better over a few days.

People from the US who travel and need healthcare know very well our system is the worst.

Germany:
I call the office
I schedule a time (and maybe a date if it's not urgent)
I go there
I get my treatment (advice), a prescription and if needed when to reschedule
I go to the apothecary and redeem my medication (usually without extra charges. But some arent subsidized 100% and you need to pay the remaining)
I get better again
I start working

Give them a call. Generally get an appointment within 2 days.
Get told to take paracetamol for 2 weeks and make another appointment if the problem persists.

Drs are generally on time maybe 10 min behind but when I was in Australia they would regularly get up to an hour late.

Costs are generally subsidied by the national government so unless something comes up unexpectedly there is no cost. If something does then you pay a fee and your private health takes care of the rest.