Agreed. I have trouble squaring an argument like that with my own personal experience. (I also did not read the article, but I get the gist from the comments, for whatever that's worth.)
To take two ER-related examples:
• In the USA, I had some brief, sharp chest pain and my general practitioners office refused to set an appointment without be going to the ER. I was quite certain it was not a heart attack, but I complied. I was briefly triaged and not admitted. I believe the bill (with very good insurance) was more than 2000 USD.
• In Germany, my wife had an eye injury that required a trip to the ER. She was triaged, saw several doctors, including a specialist. She fortunately did not need treatment, but was required to check with another specialist within a few days to check how things were healing. There was no cost for this beyond our public insurance.
I can cite dozens of other examples where medicines were free/cheap, tests or specialists were covered by default, elective procedures were dramatically cheaper, etc. And this doesn't even include several fights with US insurance companies over tests that were recommended by a doctor.
Is the system here perfect? Certainly not, FAR from it. But it is a big reason why I'm not interested in moving back to the US.
To take two ER-related examples:
• In the USA, I had some brief, sharp chest pain and my general practitioners office refused to set an appointment without be going to the ER. I was quite certain it was not a heart attack, but I complied. I was briefly triaged and not admitted. I believe the bill (with very good insurance) was more than 2000 USD.
• In Germany, my wife had an eye injury that required a trip to the ER. She was triaged, saw several doctors, including a specialist. She fortunately did not need treatment, but was required to check with another specialist within a few days to check how things were healing. There was no cost for this beyond our public insurance.
I can cite dozens of other examples where medicines were free/cheap, tests or specialists were covered by default, elective procedures were dramatically cheaper, etc. And this doesn't even include several fights with US insurance companies over tests that were recommended by a doctor.
Is the system here perfect? Certainly not, FAR from it. But it is a big reason why I'm not interested in moving back to the US.