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testing22321 a day ago

Given that would never happen in every other OECD country, yes, it does.

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baggy_trough a day ago | parent | next [-]

So essentially the stat claim is meaningless?

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testing22321 20 hours ago | parent [-]

Not at all. As you said, someone has a medical concern, and they don’t go to the dr because of cost.

Exactly as the stat says

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baggy_trough 2 hours ago | parent [-]

We should be concerned because somebody values the health care received less than a $30 copay?

	▲	rawgabbit 14 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		In my experience, it is the blood tests, x-rays, ultrasounds, cat scans, and interpretations ordered by the physician. The labs, technicians, and interpretation may or may not be in network. Six months after the visit, I get a bill from a third party I never heard of.

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SpicyLemonZest 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There are many OECD countries where primary care appointments are not free. France, Switzerland, Japan, etc.

Countries that do make them free still have some sort of rationing mechanism that prevents primary care practitioners from being overwhelmed. In the UK, for example, appointment requests are triaged based on urgency and non-urgent appointments will often have to wait a while. In Canada, it's somewhat quicker to get appointments with your provider but much harder to find a provider if you don't already have one.

More generally, the goal of a functional healthcare system is to make sure everyone gets the care they need to achieve good health outcomes, not to ensure that everyone can have as much of a doctor's time as they'd like.