Quote Originally Posted by Salty_Aus View Post
"Also, Americans aren't used to waiting months to get appointments with specialists or certain tests. They're also not used to getting declined for certain tests they want."

Plenty of Americans aren't used to having proper or even adequate healthcare, let alone tests they need.
Tests should be about what is needed, not wanted by the patient.
Correct. Tests should be about what's "needed", and I agree that there's a lot of waste there in the US. However, the long waits and denials in socialized medicine countries come from overutilization. There's only so many facilities and test machines to go around, so if there's high demand, there's a wait. And when there's such a long wait, uncomfortable decisions have to be made regarding "need". And since medicine is very subjective regarding the need for tests (there's rarely an absolute standard of such a thing), some people are wrongfully denied access to such tests.

You also say "plenty of Americans aren't used to having proper or even adequate healthcare".



Obamacare actually fixed that. Almost all Americans can now get health insurance. The poor get it free. Many working people get it through their jobs anyway. The middle-class and above can afford the premiums anyway (though they are too high, due to the high costs). The lower-middle-class can get subsidies and just need to budget properly to pay the rest (many Americans are notoriously bad at budgeting, but they should pay their premiums if they are reasonable for their income level.)

The big problem in the US right now is a combination of super-high costs and a doctor shortage.

Converting to a socialized plan will worsen both.

Fix costs first, perhaps address the doctor shortage as well (there are ways), and THEN talk about who pays for it.