50 days to see a doctor in Boston…Is universal coverage the cause?

[opebo]

No.

As you know I'm a UK resident. I felt unwell last night so I wanted to see a doctor and I did at 11am the next morning after booking an appointment at 8.30 am. Cost me nothing, bar a $6.50 flat fee for a prescription afterwards.

So many people knock such a system without knowing the slightest thing about it.

Oh no, they know everything they need to know about it - it reduces the massive income of the health care mafia, and it wastes resources on sick poors.  Believe me, they don't knock it because they actually fear the mythical 'doctor wait', which is obviously an absurd canard.

[opebo]

The raw ideology on this board is mind boggling.

What ideology?  Its simple reason - those of us who don't have health insurance can never see a doctor.  The wait is forever.  So, the wait would be less long under socialized medicine.

The facts are that wait times are not just a little longer but significantly longer in Britain than in the US and survival rates for cancer patients are much lower.  That anyone would deny this at this stage suggests a total immunity to evidence.

'Facts'?  You mean facts are what some fascist asshole claims on a message board?  Your claims are obviously utter nonsense, Ford.

you will still die from it and then your family gets to pay the tens of thousands of dollars in medical debt.  Hope they have a house or something to sell to pay that off!

Nonsense of course. I have a LOT of experience with that situation and I call BS.

Come on States everyone knows people who have tens of thousands in medical debt - I know 3 people like that myself.

[opebo]

For those who have access to it, absolutely.

The real misunderstanding of health care is just how few actually do have access.  Sure, lots of dumb working stiffs think they have access to health care, because they get some crappy insurance through their job.  But as soon as they actually get seriously ill they find out that the insurance company finds some way to deny them, or even if it pays for a while, once they get too ill to work they lose their job and with it their health care (and all income). 

So in practice only very wealthy people have secure access to health care in the US.

[opebo]

Most health care which goes uncovered and thus untreated is not car accidents but long term chronic and often ultimately fatal illnesses, Ford.  Cancers, heart disease, diabetes, renal failure, aids, the list goes on and on.  Poor people who get these diseases can't just walk into an emergency room and say 'oh, please give me months or years of expensive drugs and ongoing treatments - its an emergency!'.  No, they slowly die untreated.  Yeah, they will have a chance at being pronounced dead in an emergency room, but nothing will be done to prevent or delay that end.

Your suggestion that poor people have access to health care in the US is either idiotic or offensive or both.