It's not that simple. Sometimes you go to two or even three doctors and they don't take your symptoms seriously. "A mild cough is nothing to worry about, lots of people have mild asthma and don't realise it, have an inhaler", "Everybody gets headaches, it's not abnormal", "Your blood results are perfect", "The X-Ray came up clear". You end up feeling like a hypochondriac. Most of the time the doctors are right. Twice in my life I was convinced that something was very wrong (and thankfully it wasn't)
Of course, sometimes the doctors are wrong.
In the last year I lost my sister and our dog to cancer. In both situations, cancer want diagnosed at first. In the case of my sister, the doctor assumed "women's problems" - irregular bleeding, bloating, cramping etc. But the diagnosis came pretty quickly afterwards because it was a very aggressive cancer that soon triggered blood clots, fluid on the lungs and a bunch of other stuff. They could do nothing for her, and catching it earlier wouldn't have helped. It ate through her in about 6 months. The oncologist was up to date on the latest treatments and was discussing her case with the world's best (because she was only 44 and had just had a kid, they did everything they could).
With our dog, there wasn't a diagnosis for weeks, while he gradually deteriorated. We have an amazing vet, but nothing showed up in tests (blood work, x-rays, physical exams). The only hunch we had was that pain killers seemed to ease his breathing issues - so we took him to get an MRI and found it. We choose to spare him from the pain (he had a very happy 10 years, and wasn't the type that could handle chemo and operations - it would have been incredibly selfish to put him through it for... What, maybe 12 months of health before it comes back?)
Thing about cancer: sometimes it's treatable and sometimes it's not. I have a whole new respect (read: "fear of") cancer since last year.
This is if you can even get prophylactic blood tests done, which is not a guarantee in some European countries
I had an awful experience with Sweden's health care system when I lived there ~6 years ago, and didn't get actual help until I went to a private doctor via private insurance.
Since then, while I still support access to universal healthcare, I personally have stuck entirely to private healthcare instead.
Which? Because without specifics it's just casting aspersions on the whole concept of universal healthcare. Especially since a major part of OP's point was about costs and insurers.
I feel you. I hate seeing the talking point about seeing other doctors being ‘harder’ in countries with socialized medicine. Most of the debate in the US is centered around how one single system works: Canada. Canada’s system is pretty restrictive compared to pretty much every other European or Latin American country with socialized health care, and conservatives in America have latched to a few shortcomings of that system to paint every other system as worse than the US, when in reality the vast majority of Canadians themselves would favor their systems to the US.
It’s almost impossible to have a real conversation about socialized medicine here without encountering a myriad talking points like that one.
