“The collapse is caused mainly by debt and the economic crisis in Puerto Rico and historic privatization of the health care system there. Our research shows patients are waiting for six to eight months to get an appointment with a specialist. If that’s not a sign of collapse, I don’t know what is,” said Varas-Diaz.
Puerto Rico is just the canary in the coal mine. The entire US healthcare system is on the brink of collapse.
I’ve known people who’ve had to wait 6 to 8 months for a specialist and also, that privatization of health care thing.
Heard. And that’s for people with health insurance and the ability to pay deductibles / co-pays for care in the first place. Everyone else is kinda fucked.
Washington state has a great medicaid system. You’re insured if you make under a certain amount, it even covers basic dental. I think Illinois has something similar. I’m sure other states have similar things, but not all (looking at you southern states).
Medicare is Federally managed, Medicade is state-by-state. To qualify for Medicaid in most states you have to be at or near poverty levels of income - that’s around $11k to $15,000 a year maximum in order to qualify for it.
Don’t forget about the gap between qualifying for Medicaid and qualifying for marketplace subsidies. Expanded Medicaid covers that gap, but some states declined the federal money to cover it.
I looked it up. I remember when it first came about, I thought it was much higher or my memory is failing me. It’s about 20k right now in Washington state. https://www.hca.wa.gov/free-or-low-cost-health-care/i-need-medical-dental-or-vision-care/individual-adults#program-requirements
Yep. It’s what’s gotten my father to pull his head out of his ass regarding public Healthcare. His last argument was longer wait times in Canada/UK, and the difference us pretty much gone. Broken doesn’t even begin to describe it.
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My buddy has* VA healthcare. The rest of us don’t even get to see a doctor, dentist or anything else.
Corrected.
It’s working as designed.
I live near a college town with a big medical center and lots of doctors graduating. Some of the specialists here are not taking new patients at all and there is no waiting list. Only alternative is to drive 50 miles to another city.
You’d think with the internet and all, that we could have better healthcare, not worse. Specialists could see you over zoom with a nurse taking all of your vitals in person. They’re just taking tests and talking to you, it’s not new science that way. You could even have 2 specialists seeing the same info and you could have them discuss it between themselves. Healthcare hasn’t been about health and healing for a very long time.