alt Hacker NewsI live in Poland and despite being Europe from what I understand they don't have socialized healthcare. You need to buy insurance from the government, or private (I have both). If you don't have it, you don't have a right to healthcare.
Then, if you go to public doctors or hospital you still have to wait months for an exam or years for surgery. BUT, I've never heard of anyone going bankrupt from getting sick, or being scammed by their insurance not covering costs.
From what people make it sound, in the US you don't have socialized healthcare, getting doctors and exams is quick, but you also get scammed by insurance companies who will try their best to get out of paying, and I've definitely heard about people going bankrupt because they got sick.
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that's not true, access to the emergency medicine (and transport) is a constitutional right in Poland, you don't need NFZ coverage for that.
> they don't have socialized healthcare
You have free healthcare for children (up to 18 years old), pregnant women and registered unemployed. Moreover, any working person can (for free) add their spouse and parents. Plus people can apply for free health insurance if they have very low income.
That’s not exactly right. You are eligible, you just need to do something to get it. Ie if you register as unemployed, you will get insurance. Same with university students.
I dislike sentences like 'you still have to wait months for an exam or years for surgery'. Depends on the exam or surgery.
- Blood test: wait time (after your 12 hour fast) is likely 15-30minutes in most of Europe (even eastern Europe. I should know, I do one every 3 month).
- pet-scan/x-ray: at most a few hours if your area is truly underserved, in my experience, less than an hour (but I needed it 4 times, so it might be small sample size).
Specialists will make you wait for sure if it doesn't sound life-threatening for deeper exams, and especially exams that requires surgery, but the only example I have on hand is my mother's boyfriend who got his in less than two weeks, and his cancer removal surgery was planned within 3 months after the tumor biopsy (you need to change your diet at least a month before surgery to prevent complications and improve healing, so the true delay caused by wait time is ~2 month). They also explicitly said that if his cancer was more aggressive they would have given him a month to prepare according to my mom.
But yes, in Europe especially, convenience surgery can take a year (my intern lips and teeth took 17 months) (and you pay a bit out of pocket), when in the US you can be done within days.