[A_D_E_P_T]

Same. But in Croatia where things are a little bit... well... different. For instance, I don't need a prescription to buy (almost) any drug in the pharmacy. And I don't need a prescription or referral for any medical exams or blood tests; I can order them myself. Asia is like this, but Europe to the north and west of Croatia really isn't.

I believe that things in the UK and Germany might be a lot slower and much more restrictive.

[jq-r]

Well some relatively common things are easy to get in Croatia (bloodwork and meds - GPs like to prescribe those to get rid of you), more serious like exams, treatments, surgeries are absolutely terrible with waiting lists which are years long. People are dying, and/or their condition worsens before they even see a specialist. This is common knowledge for many years now.

Private clinics are opening left and right with the same(!) doctors working in both public and private clinics. Also corruption is rampant allowing doctor's friends to jump lines and that also happens for money/favors. So if you're not rich enough to go to a private clinic your second best option is bribes/corruption/nepotism. And if you don't have the latter, you're frankly fucked.

[A_D_E_P_T]

I've lived in the US where my health insurance had like a $6000 deductible and a $1400/month price-tag. (And, by the way, I really didn't appreciate how American doctors would gatekeep drugs, restrict their availability, and add significantly to their cost.)

Here, you can walk into any private clinic in Croatia, and arrange for even a fairly complicated surgery, and it'll cost you way less than all that. Your annual medical expense bill won't even come close; a very sick person in Croatia, who does everything in private clinics, pays less (annually) than a perfectly healthy person in the US who never sees the inside of a doctor's office.

My wife just gave birth here at an "expensive" private clinic, with a private room of her own, and the total price was cheaper than a few months of medical insurance would have cost in the US.

Ultimately, private clinics are a damn good thing, because price transparency, price competition, and paying out-of-pocket -- they all serve to keep fees reasonable. If a Croatian clinic tried to charge $100 for an aspirin tablet or a bag of saline, there'd be riots with pitchforks and torches.

[jq-r]

I'm not sure if we're talking here about the same things. You may say: "oh it's easy to get meds and it's cheap to do X, medical system is great" while being a medical tourist and/or having a far above average pay, I would accept that. It's great if you have the means. Just like it's great in USA if you're rich, right? But directly comparing two completely different systems and different orders of magnitude of purchasing power and taxes doesn't really paint a good picture of how it's here.

For an average citizen the system is terrible and getting worse by the day. The examples are too numerous to mention.

I'm also not sure if you think that I'm somehow against private clinics. I'm not. They of course won't compete on medications with public services as that's pointless. What I do find apalling is that doctors are working in both public and private clinics completely legally. Moreover, that practice makes the public services worse by removing the availability of the doctors and makes taxpayers being double charged for the same service.

There would be riots with pitchforks if most needed some non-basic ("take these pills") medical help. When you're young you probably don't need much. But as you get older you actually might need some procedure or a treatment. But by that time you are actually older, sicker, and there aren't too many of you to actually riot. And many jump the lines by having friends (of friends) working in hospitals. It's bleak and grim and I don't see it getting better.

[A_D_E_P_T]

I don't think you appreciate how much worse things are in the USA, even after adjusting for income and taxes. (Effective tax rates are very similar between the two countries, besides.)

Medical care isn't perfect in Croatia -- but it's not perfect anywhere, and at least in Croatia the poor can have many of their needs met by a pharmacist, without even needing to see a doctor; they'll never need to pay >$1000/month out of pocket for garbage "insurance" with a high deductible; they have the option of public care for certain procedures and treatments, and private clinics for others.

Yeah, there may be an element of corruption to it -- perhaps if you "know a guy" you'll get your appointment more quickly -- but this is small-time corruption on a human scale. In the US the corruption takes place on far vaster and more impenetrable scales, with lobbyists, regulatory capture, and I could go on...

And, yeah, some can't afford private care, and need to rely wholly on the public system in their old age. I dare say the public system in Croatia is still a damn sight better than Canada's, or the UK's. Maybe you can tell me which country has an ideal public system? Distant Japan's, perhaps?

As for public system doctors working in private clinics -- it's like that all over the world, as far as I can tell. The medical system in Hong Kong is very highly regarded, and it produces good outcomes, and I know from personal experience that doctors there also work both systems simultaneously. Public hospital in the morning, private office in the evening -- or public hospital on Mondays and private clinics the rest of the week.

In fact, the system in Hong Kong is very much like Croatia's, but Hong Kong's private clinics are roughly 5-10x more expensive, on average, for the same procedures!

All things considered, and in light of the alternatives, Croatia's is really a better system than almost any in the world, for rich and for poor.