The healthcare thing in the US is overblown by the number of young high school educated kids on social media.
The reality is that if you are a halfway competent worker, and you move to a populated area, you can pretty easily find a job with health insurance. I work in manufacturing and all the manufacturers offer health care to all their full time workers. The bar for those jobs is basically "Have a pulse, show up to work, and be able to build a 10 yr old level Lego set". Pay is usually $17-22/hr, day one no experience.
Just don't pick the $30/month healthcare option. That's how people who "work full time with insurance" end up with that "here is my $50,000 bill for falling off a ladder, thanks America".
If you can stomach the $200 to $250/month plans, you will get better healthcare than anywhere in Europe.
> The reality is that if you are a halfway competent worker, and you move to a populated area, you can pretty easily find a job with health insurance.
This is absolutely true, especially for tech workers but doesn't it concern you that you need to be a cog in the machine to get this benefit?
If you want to work for yourself ("the American dream") you either have to risk having no insurance or pay $700+ a month for baseline coverage for 1 person (price varies by state). There was even a time a few years ago where you had to pay a federal penalty if you didn't have medical insurance. I forgot the exact year, maybe it was 2016 or so but I remember the government forcing me to pay around ~$3,000 for literally not having insurance.
Have you ever needed any significant healthcare in the US? Putting aside the financial extortion that attracts the most attention, the overall system has been thoroughly trashed by the "insurance" cartels. Appointments have been diced up into 10-15 minute blips, often with a different doctor every time (group practice). You get just enough time for some pleasantries, they tell you their pre-canned suggestion, and then you get one or maybe two questions before they start pushing you out the door with a broom. And that's presenting as a reasonably intelligent person with means.
Never mind having to advocate for someone in the hospital and be continually chummy with the nurses so they see your family member as a person worth their stretched attention rather than just another body to keep warm and checklisted, while also nudging them to the mitigate the systematic incompetence but not too much lest you end up on the shit list.
I can't speak to Europe's systems though. Perhaps they're even worse.
That sounds more like an urgent care than anything.
I have probably seen 20 doctors in the last 2 years for ongoing health issues, and never once did I get two different doctors from a group practice. You would have to request that since when you make an appointment you make it for the doctor you want to see specifically.
However urgent cares are pretty much exactly as you describe, so perhaps you are confusing group practice with urgent care? Hospitals are also kind of in the same vein as urgent cares too.
If you have the means, I would highly suggest finding a good primary care doctor. Mine will sit with me for an hour if needed, no rushing, talks through everything. Search locally and you can check reviews online. Although the best ones are often not taking new patients, you have to shop around a bit.
No, I am summarizing my experience with several different primaries and around 8 specialist practices, much of it gained from advocating for several older family members.
Yes, you can request your next appointment with the same doctor (modulo having to wait even longer). But that doesn't change the overall dynamic where they've been set up to give you mere slivers of time while outsourcing their working memory to janky computer systems. And while you can develop an ongoing relationship with one doctor, they can still leave suddenly because they've hit their individual breaking point from the practice's continual screw turning.
I know there are some good doctors out there. For example our pediatrician has been great (after a bit of a bumpy start due to overall industry-wide CYA dynamics). But a few shining examples, if you can even manage to invest the effort and find them, don't really change the quality of the overall system. Especially when many situations basically require relying on the whole system.
> If you can stomach the $200 to $250/month plans, you will get better healthcare than anywhere in Europe.
Sources? My friends in the US who are from the EU and moved for some version of the American dream seem to disagree. And the point is; I don't want my 'job' to be in charge of my health insurance, ever. It is a perverse incentive (they can blackmail me with it and a lot more things; not legal, but I haven't seen many companies care about that little inconvenience). They should pay into it, but when I lose my job, my insurance should continue as if nothing happened. $250/mo is absolutely nothing though; I have friends on private plans double or more that and they still got fucked in the US because 'some reasons'/contract blah; when you are ill you don't want to bother with that shit; you just should get what you paid for for decades, not hire lawyers and have to go to court with a central line in you. That simply doesn't happen here; I will not get refused anything I need, even if I pay E0 (which I do not). Sure it might end some time, but it's gonna be a toss up depending on the coming years who has it worse.
This depends heavily on the company and what they choose to subsidize in their healthcare plan. There are very much jobs out there that have quality plans for cheap, so long as the company leadership has decided to eat the insurance bill. Some even provided free health insurance prior to the Affordable Care Act making that a "Cadillac Plan," though the ACA did improve other things.
> If you can stomach the $200 to $250/month plans, you will get better healthcare than anywhere in Europe.
I beg to differ, Switzerland is top notch and at least comparable to above. Accident insurance is mandatory for all employers and you pay 0 nothing, sickness insurance is slightly above the costs you mention and paid by every resident. Due to country being tiny you are never too far from really well staffed and equipped hospitals. I'd expect nordics have also at least very decent healthcare system.
Plus when you have any sort of issue, any normal employer is not desperately looking for ways to fire you quickly. Social safety net is on completely another level compared to US. Also lower taxes. Healthier environment to live, much better food. Vastly better and free public school system. And so on. If you plan kids, US costs will quickly spiral out of control unless on FAANG salaries, and then you have corresponding costs. Or you just let have your kids have those wonderful student loans, fuck their freedom and best years right.
But yes its still probably the most capitalistic country in Europe, and they are where they are due to all this, not some alt-right fairy tales about evil bankers and nazi gold I keep hearing from those who skipped way too many history (and other) lessons at school. Germany could be at same level but 8x more if they didn't adopt continuously ridiculously bad social direction and dangerously terrible and weak leaders. Alas, Germany's economical future and conversely EU's doesn't look that great due to this.
Where do you get health insurance in Switzerland for $200?
I don't believe you get such great health insurance in the US for $200, but you definitively won't find it in Switzerland? I pay 350CHF for the most basic insurance.
Yeah my company fired hundreds of people in USA at the start of covid, someone asked about health insurance and the CEO said "they'll be fine. We cover them for 30 more days".
The reality is that if you are a halfway competent worker, and you move to a populated area, you can pretty easily find a job with health insurance. I work in manufacturing and all the manufacturers offer health care to all their full time workers. The bar for those jobs is basically "Have a pulse, show up to work, and be able to build a 10 yr old level Lego set". Pay is usually $17-22/hr, day one no experience.
Just don't pick the $30/month healthcare option. That's how people who "work full time with insurance" end up with that "here is my $50,000 bill for falling off a ladder, thanks America".
If you can stomach the $200 to $250/month plans, you will get better healthcare than anywhere in Europe.