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How dermatology became the 'it' job in medicine

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47 points bookofjoe | 2 comments | 18 Nov 24 12:56 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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f6v ◴[18 Nov 24 14:06 UTC] No.42172363[source]▶
Tried getting an appointment in Denmark. “We don’t take any new patients”. A familiar story when trying to reach many specialists in European countries (Germany, Belgium). Except I doubt they’re getting 500k.
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jjice ◴[18 Nov 24 14:27 UTC] No.42172541[source]▶
Anecdotal, but I'm in the North East US and I called, and I'm not joking, nine primary care offices. Eight of them said they couldn't take anymore patients, and one said I could get an appointment six months later.

I hadn't needed to go to a primary care doctor in my adult life, but it was mind blowing that this was the case. Many friends of mine have had the same experience.

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1. jonhohle ◴[18 Nov 24 14:59 UTC] No.42172880[source]▶
At least in my area, huge medical groups or insurance companies have bought nearly all primary care practices. They’ve cut costs and raised prices and it’s virtually impossible to see an MD for an acute medical condition. All procedures need to be scheduled out months now.

It reminds me of what some Canadian friends described their healthcare system being like 20 years ago. If we’re paying more and getting the same service, I’m not sure there’s much reason not to socialize healthcare now (health care, not insurance).

While getting less service, as a marketplace insurance purchaser my premiums are doubling next year. It’s still “cheap”, but that would be a significant shock for most families.

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2. freedomben ◴[18 Nov 24 21:36 UTC] No.42177359[source]▶
Yep, with our current system we have evolved it into a monstrous and inefficient hybrid that contains most of the downsides of a socialized system with most of the downsides of a free market system. It's utterly insane what we're doing, and there seems to be very little interest in fundamental change.