I basically entirely gave up trying to see an ophthalmologist in the US. Wait times 6+ months out.
It's not better here. Just seeing my GP takes weeks, and he's overwhelmed.
It's not better here. Just seeing my GP takes weeks, and he's overwhelmed.
I remember a few years ago, I noticed a mole on my arm suddenly looking very irregular. I kind of panicked, thinking it was potentially skin cancer. I have decent PPO insurance, no worries, I can go call up and schedule an appointment with a dermatologist directly. I live in one of the largest metro areas in the US, tons of doctors, should be a breeze to get it checked out.
I load up the find a doctor website on my insurance company's website. There's like 30 dermatologists within an hour or so drive from me, awesome. I start calling. Not taking new patients right now. Can't be seen for 6 months, 8 months, we could get you in next year. Next year, when I might have quickly growing skin cancer?
Luckily when I finally talked to my wife about it, she reminded me she had poked my arm with a permanent marker. Some solvent, and my mole looks normal again. I still make sure to keep my dermatologist appointments, just so I don't have to deal with the new patient issues and the "we're not taking anyone new these days".
I had a different issue with extreme nystagmus come upon me. Bedridden for days, I couldn't even open my eyes without having extreme vertigo. Calling ENTs to try and get help, none would be able to see me for weeks. Luckily a friend who works with ENTs managed to get a doctor to see me but if it wasn't for that I probably would have just had to suffer at home with no answers as to what was happening.
I now know that unless I'm practically about to die, seeing a doctor that will do more than run extremely basic labs and very basic healthcare is weeks away in the US even if you have decent insurance.
> Guess what, when you price shop, the price they tell you has no relevance to the final price.
I've found they often can't realistically give any kind of useful quote. I remember getting a total cost estimate from the hospital when my second child was born, anywhere from $20k to $160k before insurance, please sign here.
This was in an actual city. Things can be even worse out in the sticks, where hospitals are much farther apart and often offer only some of the services you expect from a big-city hospital.
Lots of these plans also only cover a small geographical area, except for ER visits (which I think they have to cover). So don't get sick in a way that gets you discharged from the ER into a regular hospital bed, but still unable to get home, while traveling within your own country, if you don't want to go bankrupt.
Like it truly wouldn't have been crazy for someone on one of those plans to get some kind of travel insurance while traveling in the US. That's how fucked up our healthcare system is.
In both examples, just getting an MRI would have told me practically nothing. Maybe for the nystagmus, it would have told me if there was significant brain cancer. Maybe a blood test would have told me something about cancer, but there's a good chance it would have been inconclusive, I needed a biopsy (or, in hindsight, a bit of rubbing alcohol).