Quote:I know the US spends more on health care than any other country but in most metrics they lag behind basically every developed country with a public or semi-public health care system. If you can afford it, the US will offer the best damn care there is but most can't afford said best damn care. 

 

 

Quote:One of the chief concerns of Obamacare was to reduce ED utilization for non-emergency care. Doesn't seem to have worked because the plans most people select have a deductible in the thousands of dollars so they don't go to their primary care docs for their diabetes, hyper-tension, Strep among other things. They wait until it gets bad and then go to the ER. So long as the ER is required by law to stabilize and treat we won't solve this problem.

 

Like I say, I don't know how much of it works outside of the UK.

 

What's crazy is, over here you have people calling 999 (emergency) and 111 (non-emergency) and the systems that the call handlers use are aimed towards ruling out what's *not* wrong with you rather than finding out what is. Most calls result in the same thing, ED admission often via an ambulance. I've known hospitals have up to 22 Ambulances in a queue at the hospital waiting to offload patients into the ED area. Of course, all critically ill patients go straight through to the department, but those who aren't will wait.. sometimes hours on hours.

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