• qwertyqwertyqwerty@lemmy.one
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    11 months ago

    This isn’t accurate. In the USA, none of the above would even make someone consider going to a professional for healthcare. We would wait until Orajel would become lathered across half our dumbass smiles for tooth pain, or until something starts to make a limb or nervous system stop working appropriately, before contacting professional medical assistance. The ER is reserved for those with bones sticking out of skin, or people that feel like the ~8 hour wait is better than “toughing it out” at home with alcohol and/or opioids.

    • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Can confirm. Had stroke at 21, family at my side as they called 911, and I vividly remember thinking “I’m not going to be able to pay my bills for a couple weeks, this is awful”. Oh, awful it is, but instead of not paying my bills for a couple weeks, it’s until I die.

      I was aware that I had high bp, but it’s not a big deal, right? Only old people stroke out. Why is it suddenly really heavy and hard to move? Uhoh…

    • SnuggleSnail@ani.social
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      11 months ago

      Isn’t it cheaper to fly to Europe, visit a doctor, and fly back instead of going to the ER?

      Also for “normal” treatments. Getting a baby costs like $2000 in Germany without insurance. Plus flight and hotel for two months you are still far below 10K in total cost. 😁

        • SnuggleSnail@ani.social
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          11 months ago

          Is that safe? My knowledge of Columbia is limited to what I learned watching Narcos on Netflix. But it did not look like a medically advanced country.

          I used the power of search engines. Looks like I’m the big cities, health care is quite adequate. Have a nice trip!

          Dental work is often also not covered in the standard insurance in Germany. You either have to get an extra insurance, or you pay out of pocket, or you live with the condition (all serious things are covered, cosmetics often are not). But even then the cost is usually on the hundreds, sometimes in the thousands. 40,000 is more than the average person earns here 🙃

          • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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            11 months ago

            Best not to base your understanding of a country on a fictional depiction of what a small part of it was like 35 years ago.

      • qwertyqwertyqwerty@lemmy.one
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        11 months ago

        Isn’t it cheaper to fly to Europe, visit a doctor, and fly back instead of going to the ER?

        I mean, yes, but in the case of flying to another country, you need the money up front. In the US, if you can get into the ER (some people do in fact get rejected), you don’t have to pay the out-of-pocket expenses until after.

    • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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      11 months ago

      Five years ago I had chest pain, I thought it was a strained pectoral muscle. It wasn’t until a friend asked my plans for the evening, and I commented I was wondering when I should call a doctor about the pain, and they told me “go to the hospital now” that I went. I was having a heart attack. So yeah. Americans avoid the doctor like crazy because you can either pay an insane amount of money to be told “take an ibuprofen and get some sleep,” or to be told you’re going to be spending a truly astronomical sum because you have twelve kinds of cancer. It’s lose-lose.

    • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      As a Canadian, I don’t like making fun of the American health care system … Americans deserve far better health care support from their government.

      The other reason I don’t like making fun of it is that … our corporations, American corporations and Canadian conservatives would more than love to tear apart our health care system and privatize it all like in America.

      We shouldn’t make fun of others and their situation, especially if they can’t or feel like they can’t do anything about it all … we should work together to protect what we have and to encourage more public services to be created where there aren’t any.