Ask Lemmy

France, not a big city. If I'm sick. I call the doctor office, in another city because all doctors here have no places. I may book an appointment in two or three weeks. If I really need a doctor, I can book an appointment to "sos doctor", that I will pay for a part (and part healthcare), or go to a non-vital emergency doctor at night, which is expensive (for a doctor in France) but reimbursed by healthcare. I can have access to this because I'm still in/near a city.

The waiting time in a doctor office can be long, depending if they take time for their patients or not. I'm ok with that. If I have an appointment to my usual doctor, I don't pay or I only pay a little part which will be reimbursed minus 1€ (50/year max). There are doctors with exceding fees, like "sos doctor", those feeds are out of my pocket. Most of the time, we have healthcare AND private insurance, but there is a health insurance for poor people.

For medecine, most of the times we don't pay anything but there are fees, 1€/medecine box (50/year max, but not the same as the 50 for doctors).

I usually book an appointment. Appear on the proper day. Get my exams done, leave, no money spent. If it's like a screening for something that can be done in a public health clinic, I'll go, spend about 30 mins to one hour waiting, talk to the doc, get whatever prescriptions they give me, get discharged and go home, no money spent.

Depends on who you're seeing, what time, etc. for a GP you're waiting as long as the ones in front of you take. I actually don't mind that so much, in my case it's because my regular gp hates metrics and doesn't give a fat shit what the clinic wants. He takes as long as is needed with each patient (and bills them all as standard consults) Unfortunately he also sees a lot of little old ladies, so sometimes it blows out.

Recently found out we were inadvertently exposed to a shitton of lead dust. Monday we decided to get tested, yesterday (Tuesday) morning i got the consult, gp wrote me up the paperwork, I scooted the while four meters to the phlebotomist, they took blood and urine, should hear back today /tomorrow, already received my medicare refund. Same with hubs, although he tacked on getting his flu/rsv and latest covid vaccinations done at the same time. Australia here for the record.

Canada... Depends what kind of visit really. I captain a few rec teams, so breaks or dislocations, we'll go to emergency, get triaged and wait for a bit.

If it's somwthing I'd like to get checked out but not urgent, I'll schedule an appointment with my family dr, might take a week or 2?

For something sooner, I'll go to one of the several walk in clinics nearby. Wait time really varies but generally pretty quick as long as I get there a little early.

Italy

If it is a routine visit, one week. If you are sick a prescription is done via phone, you will find your needed medications already in the pharmacy or it will be coming in 3 days max. Your health records, allergies and needs are already in the doctor's database and your prescription will account for that.

Practices done in public infrastructure is free, and most presciption medications are too,

But we do have a very serious wait time problem with specialist visits. In the worst cases it can take more than a year if you need special visitations. There just aren't enough medics specialized to fill those positions, and who is available prefers less stressful and overworked positions.

Brazil

An USian journalist recently described his health care treatment in Brazil: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/06/29/brazil-health-care-sus-hospitals/

I believe this is a good description of the public health care here. I disagree with his statement on workers' strike. He didn't mention that Bolsonaro and Temer (last 2 presidents) reduced spending in public health care which probably impacted the hospital this journalist got taken care.

We go to see a private doctor.

Here in Costa Rica you have to wait like 5 hours to get attended on a public hospital.

For the appointment you have to pay like $50 plus medications

Costa Rica : You can have an appointment the same or the next day, and appointmens can be requestet online, by phone or getting to the nearest medical medical center. Costa Rica's social security covers everything, from medication to surgery and you are covered for the next theree months if you lose your job. There are few surgeried that are not practiced in the country as some may need technology that we do not have. The cons of Costa Ricas social health's service is that for some processes the waiting lines are very long and could take even a year or more. Might not be as good as european social health's services, but for a third world country I think is not any bad.