Comment by sh34r | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sh34r | Hacker News Reader

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I kept the same PCP at an Ivy League affiliated medical center. I had to see a couple specialists, no issues whatsoever with them accepting insurance. It might vary by state, but that's not my experience whatsoever. Private insurance plans are far worse in this regard.

It's really just mental healthcare and dentistry that are basically impossible, but again, not much better with a private health plan.

Take the blinders off, stop pretending you're not getting robbed, and maybe we can fix it. There is no silver lining to private healthcare. You're not getting better care. Social determinants of health are very real, but they're driven by those 9 states without Medicaid expansion dragging the averages way down, a lifetime of bad care before the ACA, and also that medicine can't solve the many problems caused by poverty.

We would all be better off in literally any other system. Everyone thinks they're an above average driver. Everyone thinks they'll live longer than average. The truth is, you're just not that special. Unless you're a politician that gets to go to Walter Reed, or you have a wing in the hospital named after you, you're getting the abysmal standard of care that everyone gets.

I tried to find a GP for a young adult on Medicaid this year, and the first half dozen that I tried (selecting specifically places that said on their website they took Medicaid) would not take a new patient on Medicaid. So yes, your experience as someone who already had a doctor may be much better than it is for the normal Medicaid recipient, who did not start with private insurance.

At the same time, I was looking for a new dentist for myself and for this kid. There are a half dozen dentists who would see me within ten minutes walk. I finally found her a dentist some 20 minutes drive away (bonus: she can't drive).

And the mental health provider we found who would take Medicaid did intake for new patients on Friday mornings between 9am and 12 noon, no appointments, recommend you arrive early in order to be seen.

This is in WA.

Have you tried to find a new GP for an adult with private insurance recently? Many areas have a shortage in general. This has little to do with insurance coverage, and everything to do with the bad incentives of the medical profession. Who would become a GP with your MD, when you can make twice as much money as a specialist instead? It's like getting a CS degree from Stanford and deciding to become a sysadmin at a high school with it, instead of becoming a SWE.

Conversely, I'm surprised you found a dentist and a mental health provider that takes any insurance at all, and didn't have a months-long wait list. I've almost always had to self pay for both...

Yes, in fact several of the doctors I called would have been happy to take her on if she had private insurance. This has everything to do with insurance.

Mental health providers are nearly impossible to find in the Seattle area, no matter the insurance, or even paying cash.

For whatever bloody reason they just don't exist in anything near enough quantity.

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