[yetanotherloss]

They're being squeezed by patient demand and administrations simultaneously, the whole system in the US has seemed on the brink of collapse since 2020.

I get all my care done in Taiwan and everything is fine and the doctors all seem to be mostly happy with their jobs, and a few regular nurses like me because I look like a famous actor, so they're always pretty chatty and seem to be mostly ok with life.

[TaylorAlexander]

The US medical system is such a mess. I go to get blood drawn regularly and even with an appointment sometimes the wait is over 90 minutes. There will be people who had an appointment but they were five minutes late so they got put on the walk-in waitlist, which often never gets processed so they sit for hours only to get dismissed. Everything costs too much money and the service is awful. It’s just a nightmare.

[sergiotapia]

Would you care to share more on how you do this? Do you just fly out and pay out of pocket? How do you find specialists? Curious about this for my mother.

[yetanotherloss]

I have permanent residency in Taiwan so it's easy for me, although before that it was still easier than anything in the US, just not next to free without their national insurance.

I don't necessarily encourage medical tourism but simply fly to Taipei, find a doctor you want to see, and sign up for an appointment. It will be a little more work without the NHI card but still probably less than whatever you're dealing with. If you get medical scans, almost everyone can print a CD with them in a day or two if you ask. Getting care even without insurance was cheaper than just my US insurance premiums.

Having someone fluent in Chinese is important enough I'd say it was required but if you restrict yourself to a smaller sunset of hospitals and clinics that serve foreigners around like Tianmu you may be able to get by with a translator app.

People outside NHI are uncommon and their medical system isn't really set up to support it. You may want to consider actual medical tourism facilities of which I've heard of several in Mexico or Costa Rica.

You and your mother may also want to consider rioting, because the US system is deliberately and almost uniquely stupid.

[latchkey]

Check out Thailand. Medical tourism is a thing. Generally, yes... pay out of pocket, but it is so inexpensive compared with insurance that it isn't a big deal.

Also, people don't realize, you can get health insurance in other countries. Prior to covid, I was an expat living in Vietnam and had very good full health coverage for about $4500 a year. I just found a local insurance broker who did all the paperwork for me.