I can't go into much detail, but I know a lot of people with medical problems who aren't being seen by doctors in the US. Time and again I see people who have what I know to be fairly routinely urgent medical concerns that do get told by the ER that they have to wait for a specialist... 6+ months out. I'm sorry, but an infection doesn't wait 6+ months for you to put them on some basic antibiotics that a PA or I think even some nurse practitioners can prescribe in certain jurisdictions.
I remember when I was in the military (circa 2008), I had a colleague who told me his mother died on the sidewalk outside an ER because they couldn't afford any insurance and the hospital refused to see her. I didn't believe it, I though that it couldn't possibly be a thing in the US. But I keep seeing parallel issues time and again, but now it's for basic things and not because of insurance, but providers and networks are so fucked up that people must be dying from these things.
I know someone who worked in billing and claims for medical insurance too. They share horror stories about double leg amputees being denied a wheelchair...
Hope I don't get an infected cut or something, even with my decent insurance who the hell knows at this point!
This is a parallel tangent- I just had the price of one of the medicines I need very much go up 10x. I could afford it, but can’t afford it in the long run, and I called the insurance and they’re like 🤷”Nothing we can do. You could go to your Dr and see if they can prescribe another medicine.” But turns out the price depends on the manufacturer which changes depending on pharmacy, which I wouldn’t know until I had the Rx and called the pharmacy. And it’s hard enough to get into my Dr anyway. And I have decent insurance!! 😭