> With private, you get exactly what you want, whenever you want it.

In the US this isn't how it works. You can't see whoever you want unless you have a really, really good plan. Otherwise, you need referrals. And lots of specialists won't see you without a referral anyway.

And, the wait is often on the order of months. I know that's something people complain about in the UK but I assure you, it happens that way in the US too even though we're paying 10x as much.

I know private in the UK is quite good. What you need to understand is that the only reason it's any good at all is because of the NHS. It has to remain competitive. If you go full private, then it very quickly decays.

▲

reillyse an hour ago | parent [-]

In the US if I want to see my primary care doctor I need to wait 2 months for the appointment.

I pay $500 per month for the privilege (and a $50 copay)

So I’m paying $1000 in the time period where I’m getting no service.

▲

zdragnar an hour ago | parent [-]

Where in the US are you? I was able to book a visit with my primary the very next day less than a month ago.

	▲	tracker1 36 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		That was my thinking... even for specialists, I can generally get into a new one within a few weeks. My SO is on state Medicaid (cancer) and does experience the kinds of waits mentioned above... so I guess it does follow similarly for government/state backed healthcare, where I'm mostly out of pocket. But even when I had relatively typical coverage, I didn't have issues getting into a doctor more often than not. I think getting my sleep study was the longest wait I had for anything, they were months backed up with appointments... but my kidney and retina specialists were somewhat easy to get started with.