Rimfire said:
As someone who lives in a country with socialised Healthcare (Germany):
There is no waiting time here if i want to see my doc. But there is a long waiting time for specialists, because they are not enough so everybody has to wait a few months. Unless it´s an emergency, in which case they have to see you at once.
Well that?s not the whole story. E.g. if you had a private health insurance plan you get an appointment with a specialist in a reasonable amount of time.
I think Stern and Spiegel had several articles with test of their own demonstrating that with a private health insurance plan you can get an appointment in let?s say 3 week?s time while the guy with a statutory health insurance plan, who mind you called 5 minutes earlier, got an appointment in 5 month time.
The issue they discussed is that is much more profitable for the doctors to treat someone in the private field than one in the statutory field. Therefore most appointments are used or reserved for patients with a private health insurance plan.
Now I very much agree that our system is way better then whatever the USA currently employs but it certainly is still true that money gets you faster and better treatment in Germany as well.
Edit: For everyone not familiar with the German system: You can only get a private health insurance plan if you are either part of a certain job group, e.g. if you are self-employed or are civil servant (those guys have a lot of bonus...), or if you earn enough money which is currently roughly about 55 000? annually.
