I’ll start with the German system. Here you are either automatically insured in one of the public insurances (there are many), which marginally differ in their cost (think single digit euro differences) and have to cover basically the same procedures. If one reaches a certain income level, being privately insured is possible.

If you are publicly insured, you wont see most costs, as these are directly handled between your insurer and the doctor/hospital. For some medications and procedures there are co-pays that are flat fees (5 Eur for Medications, …).

Access to specialists mostly need a referral from your family doctor.

In private insurance, often you yourself will be billed and you will need to hand this to your insurance company.

The good side is that in most common situations I have never needed to worry about cost in public insurance, wait times for referrals can be very long and understanding what you need to get certain care can be very difficult. Private insurance often has better payment schemes for providers and less artificial limits on number of patients or which doctor is able to provide services, so access to most care is faster and more widely available.

Sweden: Healthcare is mostly tax-funded. There is a small fee (for adults between 20-85 ) for each appointment. This fee lies between 150-330 SEK (~15-33 €), depending on which region you’re in. Emergency care is usually about 10 € more (40€), and an ambulance trip double (so ~60€). If you’re admitted to a hospital the fee is 120 SEK/day (in my region). Total fees paid for appointments during a year is capped at 1300 SEK (130 €), after that they’re cost-free.

The above is regarding “necessary” care, so things like cosmetic surgery, vasectomies, etc. you’ll have to pay more.

Access to specialist doctors varies, some you can contact directly (usually private practice), and others you’ll have to first make an appointment with a general practitioner at a health center, then get a referall if they deem it necessary. In my region there’s quite a long wait time for many specialists (I had to wait 6 months for a head MRI), and sometimes you’ll have to travel quite far because the care is only offered in one hospital in the region (My wife had to drive 200 km for a surgery).

Australia here.

For most medical services, the govt will reimburse you a set rate. The GP or specialist can charge you whatever, sometimes the same as the govt reimbursement, sometimes quite a lot extra. You don’t pay anything at public hospitals (which are nice).

I recently had some great problems, I stayed overnight in hospital twice, for a total of 3 nights in private rooms, had an internal scaffold inserted in my artery. i also had numerous consults with specialists and drs.

The whole thing cost me about $500, a few days work on average wage.

UK here. Everything is free at point of use (paid via taxes) except prescriptions. It’s around £10 per item. But they are free if you have certain long term health conditions, are pregnant etc.

To see a specialist your doctor writes a letter and they contact you.

Canada. It’s free, but slow.

They’ll keep you alive, but it’s up to you to stay healthy. Little prevention support around here.

U.S.A., I have a “high deductible PPO” plan, more or less what my parents would have called “Major Medical”.

It covers only some preventative care, for $0 out of pocket, whatever is mandated by the government basically so annual wellness, annual woman-care, birth control, one dermatologist visit.

Then nothing, until we spend some ridiculous amount in one year, I think it’s $7,000? At which point it starts paying 80% until we have paid an even bigger $, then it pays 100%.

So we don’t have healthcare, exactly, we have limited liability for healthcare cost.

Specialist I can just schedule, do not need to be referred by GP. Prescriptions are subject to that same high deductible.

This plan costs, out of my paycheck, kind of a lot for family coverage, and employer puts back some of it onto a “health savings account” that can be used to pay towards the cost. Not anywhere near that $7k but some, and what is not used stays in there. I also put money in that account out of my paycheck to build it up so that when we do eventually have a bad year again, the money will hopefully be there to use.

Yes it’s complicated.

In Poland, it doesn’t. They just steal our money without anything in return you have to wait for years to get into surgery what you pay taxes for.

USA. Others have covered cost but I’d like to add how long it takes to see a doctor.

I have an established primary care physician that I’ve seen for years. Now though if I want an appointment I have to wait at least two months. So I have a membership with an urgent care near me that puts a $180 cap on visits to their chain of urgent cares. There is obviously no on going care with them but most of the time that’s okay.

A friend of mine doesn’t have an established PCP and to get one he must wait at least a calendar year….

I open Google, search “am I gonna die”, and if it says probably not, then I ignore whatever it is and hope it goes away. And if it says I am, then I wait for the end to come.

Here in the US, if you have health insurance, any time you go to the doctor it’s $200. That’s if you have a doctor to go to. So we mostly don’t go, until it’s really bad, then maybe you have to go to the hospital, which may be a few thousand bucks on the low end and bankruptcy on the high end. You have no idea what you will pay when you go, they send you a bill in the mail that arrives 2-3 weeks later.

So we pretty much avoid interacting with the medical system at all costs.

If you do want to see a doctor or specialist it’s pretty easy since they are businesses, you just call them up and make an appointment. But what do I look like over here, John D. Rockefeller?

Then we die young of easily preventable diseases.

Romania you pay taxes from your salary or if you are a student then you are automatically covered. To access specialists you need a piece of paper from your designated doctor that confirms from him/her that you need a specialist.

The reality tho is that the state of the medical system is bad. Understaffed and equipment older then 40+ years.

In NZ for basic healthcare, you call to make an appointment with your GP, go in later that day, they give you a prescription and you pay $5 for the medication and about $40 for the appointment.

For specialists in the public sector, there is a long waiting period, like a few months sometimes. You can pay for a private specialist, but it is of course expensive. Completely depends on the type of specialist etc.

Dental is not covered by public health care because we still live in 1864 apparently where barbers are meant to be pulling our teeth, but we are getting very close to having dental as part of public healthcare.

A huge amount of medication is subsidised here, basically anything life-saving like insulin, asthma medication, etc. I have an infinite supply of paracetamol because I just get it prescribed when I go to the doctors and pay nothing for it.

It really blows my mind that the US has an objectively vampiric and unfair healthcare system.

I walk into the emergency ward, take a number, give my id to a clerk, sit down and browse reddit Lemmy for a couple hours, see a doc, get some treatment if needed, and leave with a prescription, maybe a referral, and probably a parking ticket.

Canada, eh?

Canadian here - pretty good outside surgeries. We’ve got a serious shortage of specialist surgeons up here so you’re usually best going out of country for important non-emergency surgeries.

In my day job I track the US Healthcare system and it’s even more of a shitshow than you imagine.

Healthcare is all free to the patient (the one caveat being a small, fixed charge for prescription medication - which is free for some groups), all paid for via national taxes based on wealth. UK.

If we need a specialist Doctor, we are referred to one. There’s no money involved for the patient whatsoever.

Attaching an unaffordable fee to healthcare would be a clear barrier for anyone who is not upper class, and this would be seen as deeply discriminatory and thus unacceptable.