Don't get me wrong, it works for most part and like you said, you guys get it for free (I have private health cover as I'm not a citizen) so it is not all bad. But that's nothing saying there's no room for improvement. I've been to the ER 5 times in 10 years of Australia with only the last time being there for my own injuries (collarbone) and every single time we had to wait over 3 hours to see someone. Surely there's room for improvement there.
Like I said, I do have private insurance but when I first went in (straight from the track) I didn't have my card on me so public I went (and paid for it). The Doctor that saw me said: "no need for an operation... just go home and try not to move it" I SWEAR TO GOD I even had to ask to get some sort of arm sling because she was happy to send me home wearing the one they "made" for me at the track. I asked if I could get an operation done and she replied "no Dr will do that for you unless you're an athlete. It will leave a nasty bump on your shoulder and you have a small chance of losing some mobility but you'll get used to it". Then came back 2 weeks later with the health insurance card, Dr looks at my x-ray (same one I took on the day of the accident), asks me nothing, tells me to go home and come back in 8 weeks if I'm not healed. God knows why I even had to go there then...
So yeah, there's room.
I've only been to the ER once in the USA but it was almost like walking into a NASA lab... lol It would have cost me a house if I didn't have insurance though.
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