It really is easier, and you can see how this works in any number of countries with universal healthcare. I don’t have diabetes but do have chronic health issues that need constant treatment. Here in the UK:

1. I can reorder prescriptions on the NHS app when I’m running out. They get delivered to my preferred pharmacy or if I was away from home I can specify a local pharmacy. The prescription will be delivered there.

2. Prescriptions normally cost 9.90GBP per “item” (where an item is one type of medicine so may be multiple physical boxes of pills for example). This is a fixed cost and is independent of the type of medicine or how much it costs to the NHS. But…

3. You can get a prepayment certificate for 114.50 GBP per year which means you don’t have to pay per item. I have this so every time I go to the pharmacy I check one box and sign the bottom of a form and my drugs are free. The cert is a simple online purchase and took me about 5 minutes to apply and get accepted for. Zero friction. I have never been asked to show the certificate just state that I have one check a box and sign and we’re done. If I did have to show it, the “certificate” is just an email with a number so not hard.

4. The same app I used in #1 has messages from my GP in it so if there was ever a thing when they needed to talk to me, arrange a blood test, deliver test results etc it’s all in there (and I don’t pay a penny for any of those things either). Everything that’s in the NHS app is also on the NHS website which has excellent accessibility etc so works just fine on Linux for me when I don’t have my mobile device.

5. If you want to go outside the NHS you can go to a private practicioner and get a private prescription. That’s delivered to the same pharmacy you just have to give them this number that gets texted to you with the prescription and pay (a bit) more money for it. I had to do this recently and it cost me 22GBP for an “item”. You can also have private health insurance (I do) which means seeing specialists is easier than on the NHS and there is generally no wait time for tests etc. Private health insurance in the UK is much cheaper than it is in the US.

Bottom line: At least here in the UK the NHS may have bureaucracy internally but that doesn’t affect me at all as a “customer”. My healthcare is super-easy and convenient and far, far less expensive than healthcare in the US. You guys have the worst of all worlds. Both my wife and I have had medical treatment in the US and it manages to be eye-wateringly expensive and simultaneously worse than what I get for free on the NHS.

I looked up the US price for the private prescription I paid 22GBP for. On drugs.com it would have cost me 239 USD.

> I can reorder prescriptions on the NHS app when I’m running out. They get delivered to my preferred pharmacy or if I was away from home I can specify a local pharmacy. The prescription will be delivered there.

We have that too. But that doesn't address the person's main complaint, that they have to consult with a doctor in the first place to get that prescription.