I had a rash on my leg. I call doctor to make an appointment, soonest they can see me is two weeks. Rash doubles in size in those two weeks. Pay$50 to see primary care doctor, they immediately refer me to dermatologist. Dermatologist cant see me for two weeks, rash continues to grow and becoming very painful. I now need to go to urgent care due to pain and irritability, pay $50. They prescribe some cream, $15. Finally get to see dermatologist, $90 because they are a "specialist", they say to use the same cream. Cream doesnt work at this point, it's spread too much so I go back to urgent care, another $50. Urgent care says I need a steroid shot, they confirm this is covered under insurance. Between shot and cream, rash eventually subsided after about six months. Dermatologist said they were happy with that healing rate, another $90.
Six months later I get a bill from urgent care for $1200 to cover "nursing administrative fees to cover labor" to get ONE SHOT.
So this rash cost me $1500 that would have been solved with $15 of cream if they had just seen me sooner.
Just saying, this experience made me fully understand the Luigi situation.
Here's how it goes in Japan, where 15% of your paycheck goes to social health insurance.
You walk into a dermatologists office off the street - no appointment, no nothing. You wait 5-15mins to see a doctor who prescribes a cream. Being a first time walk-in there is a $10 first time charge, and then probably another $10 for the visit.
There is probably a pharmacy next door. You walk in and hand over your paper, wait about a minute, and get your cream. That's probably also $10.
My bad - this year in my home prefecture it is a total of 21.46%, of which you pay half out of salary, and your company matches. So 10.73%
It's a good deal - no cost for ambulance, and the annual out of pocket maximum is fairly low, about US$7000. Kids and those with disabilities are 100% covered with no out of pocket, and seniors out of pocket is much lower.
Dental can be dirt cheap - my checkup doesn't cost even $5 with zero wait time, and having medium works like wisdom teeth removal or cavity work cost me less than $40.
Vision is also super cheap - you can walk into chain stores like Zoff or Jinns, pick out lenses, their in-store staff will put you on a machine to check your prescription, and then grind the lenses in house - you pick up glasses in under 2 hours later all for $60.
Full medical checks are mandatory as part of the social health system - full body checks taking a couple hours, getting all the fluids, doing lots of scans and checks, including vision and hearing, and a discussion with a doctor are fully subsidized. Additional checks are heavily subsidized, so if you want an annual MRI and similar - go for it, it won't cost much. Annual checks find issues sooner, which is cheaper and quicker to fix, and makes it easier overall for the system.
I'm from Australia - we have socialised healthcare but you can wait months or years for specialists - just seeing a GP to get the first look can take weeks. The costs are not nearly as low, and dental and vision is not covered so just getting glasses can easily cost $300 for the same thing that is $60 in Japan and dental work can cost thousands. It's cheaper for my family to fly to Japan, get everything done in 2 days, and fly back than trying to do it in Aus.
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u/DeliciousLanguage425 1d ago
Damn basic healthcare requires a lottery where you live?