God, I want to write a rant about how unbelievably spoiled by opportunity you are, and how completely ignorant you are of the quality of the medical system in the United States compared to other countries, and how galling it is that Sanders deceived people about so many things to whip them into a frenzy about exactly the wrong things. But sometimes it just feels so pointless.
waiting for hours while I argue with your insurance company about why you need that chest CT
You literally think that other countries are magical Utopias where everyone gets high technology scans any time they want without any waiting. OMG someone might have to wait for hours?
Here is a handy guide to NHS Wait Times, just for your reading pleasure. My favorite part is this: "You have the legal right to start your non-emergency NHS consultant-led treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks from referral, unless you choose to wait longer or it is clinically appropriate that you wait longer."
I'm sure glad it's my legal right to get treatment within FOUR FUCKING MONTHS.
But it gets even better. Here's a report about NHS wait times and how they've improved. Take a look at their graphic metric -- The number of patients that had to wait longer than SIX WEEKS. The median wait is two weeks for CT scans.
Here's a recent article about it. The hilarious part in the article is this: "When a patient is referred for diagnostic services such as a CT scan or an endoscopy they are meant to be seen within eight weeks - the so-called "operational standard"."
Eight weeks is the operational standard. EIGHT FUCKING WEEKS. And they can't even meet that.
Americans have no idea how good we have it in our supposedly horrible system. Is it too expensive? HELL FUCKING YES. But let's not overlook the fact that the vast majority of people DO have insurance, and our system gives us instant access to health care. I can get a next day MRI any time my doctor thinks I need it.