Yes. I am not an expert but from what I understand, the reason is because governments are inefficient and cough (sometimes get corrupt). Therefor the government funds the healthcare insurance companies to take care of the citizens. They do profit from other aspects so that always clashes with the non-profit side. As usual, everything in Israel is a mishmash of interests but it works for the most part. For example, they provide additional insurance (like the premiums I mentioned in the previous post) and pseudo care like acupuncture, horse riding etc... That is also subsidized if a doctor prescribe it. For example, horse riding for autisim or ADHD etc...

Not to mention the they document everything digitally and I mean everything. That gave Israel the advantage to be the first to get the immunization in COVID since Israel made a deal to provide that health digital histories for the pharmaceutical companies for further research. That was a calculated risk, but seems like it payed off...

I don’t know if you can use an argument about waiting times if most of your country can’t go at all due to the cost. I’m sure anywhere could have no waiting times if you take away the patients.

Times are depending on priority and payments. I.e. If you don't pay anything then you are seen in either FIFO or depending how serious it is. Your family doctor also has a say on priorities. If you pay about 15$ a month then you can have 3 appointments a year with every private doctor you want. Also, you have priorities in private surgeries. If you don't have premium insurance and you want a private doctor then it can cost about 150$ for 1 appointment. So everyone practically pays the 15$.

Plus, children up to 18 don't have to pay the premium they automatically insured in premium. Children have full dental free care up to 18 years. No problems with appointments if you have priority (like immediate pain or something).

The specialized doctors (heart brain etc...) are all encouraged to do a post doctoral for a year in Canada or US so they are pretty good.

You can typically get an appointment with your GP within a day or two; their role is basically triage for the rest of the health system. Access to specialists is tiered; a referral from a GP gets you access to earlier appointments, without a referral you could wait for months. So people with chronic conditions who know that they need to set up appointments on a regular basis set up those appointments months ahead of time (instead of setting a personal reminder on their phones then trying to get an appointment in the next day or two), while slots are kept open for people who get referrals for more acute cases. An appointment for a specialist after securing a referral can be anywhere from same-day to a couple weeks or so. Some people pay for private insurance because the thought of waiting a couple weeks to see a specialist is unthinkable for them.

I have a parent who needed cancer treatment in the US (in a major urban center), even with insurance, trying to get an appointment with oncologists, radiologists, etc. could take more than a month, trying to get surgery scheduled was a multi-month affair. Especially for cancer treatment, where time is of the essence (who knows when the tumor will continue to metastisize?), the process was frustratingly slow. The Israeli process is far faster.

As far as quality... look, most doctors in the system aren't going to be Dr. Gregory House. But no complaints. By and large, the ones I have encountered will listen, are attentive, are not immediately dismissive of attempts to self-diagnose, and do a good job. Israeli law also recognizes the right to a second opinion and doctors encourage patients to secure one if they so desire.

I wish Americans looked up their own country, too

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The 2022 survey indicates that it now takes an average of 26 days to schedule a new patient physician appointment in 15 of the largest cities in the United States, up from 24.1 days in 2017 and up from 21 days in 2004.

Major cities, like those included in the survey, have some of the highest ratios of physicians per capita in the country, yet the survey indicates physician appointment wait times are increasing.

Family medicine is the only specialty in which average appointment wait times were down relative to 2017, according to the survey. The average wait time for a family medicine appointme

https://www.wsha.org/articles/new-survey-physician-appointme... is 20.6 days for all cities, down from 29.3 days in 2017, a 30 percent decrease.

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I can't imagine it'd be worse than wait times in the US. For many things it now takes months to get an appointment. Oh and the day of your appointment the doctor's kid will be sick, have fun waiting another 2 months. That's the reality I live in.

That is a matter of debate, I don't have a good answer for you. I see the US at one extreme of saying: you are responsible for your health in all ways. In Israel it is like, we give you the option to be more healthy but we'll catch you if you fall. There are many many progressive taxation rules. Basically if you earn a lot you pay more. It is one of the most (if not the most) heavily taxed country in the world. Mostly because of arms budgets. In Israel we view the survival of every person as important because we are relatively few. I am guessing when you have 100s of millions of people this is less important for survival as a whole. Good or bad, you decide what works for you.