I have heard similar complaints about UK and Canada. From a cost perspective, it makes sense to me. I also wonder: If you make people wait months, how many people skip/cancel the appointment? Probably many.
I have lived in two countries with very unfair healthcare systems. High income people get "health insurance" (whatever that term really means!) from their employer. They use it a LOT. Way too much. And their "health insurance" covers most of the cost. The number of times that I have seen high income people see a medical doctor for a runny nose (light head cold) stuns me. What an incredible waste of medical resources! As someone fortunate enough to have this "health insurance" at various times in my life, I am constantly saying "no" when doctors try to over-prescribe all manner of medicines. Obviously, they know my insurance will pay 100%!
The #1 duty of a public healthcare system absolutely must be "acute need". Everything else is second priority, else they go bankrupt. It's rough. I don't know a better solution.
Crazy idea: What if there was a kind of public auction system where people in the queue could set a price to sell their position? As long as it was fair and transparent, I might be OK with it.
I'd say that's universal across many countries. The flip side is that Dutch insurers do allow their patients to shop around for care. E.g. getting treated in Belgium or Germany for routine procedures is fairly common. Mostly these just are shortages of staff, equipment, etc. and being efficient sometimes also means that available care is fully utilized. Which just means people have to wait for non critical things sometimes.
I have lived in two countries with very unfair healthcare systems. High income people get "health insurance" (whatever that term really means!) from their employer. They use it a LOT. Way too much. And their "health insurance" covers most of the cost. The number of times that I have seen high income people see a medical doctor for a runny nose (light head cold) stuns me. What an incredible waste of medical resources! As someone fortunate enough to have this "health insurance" at various times in my life, I am constantly saying "no" when doctors try to over-prescribe all manner of medicines. Obviously, they know my insurance will pay 100%!
The #1 duty of a public healthcare system absolutely must be "acute need". Everything else is second priority, else they go bankrupt. It's rough. I don't know a better solution.
Crazy idea: What if there was a kind of public auction system where people in the queue could set a price to sell their position? As long as it was fair and transparent, I might be OK with it.