Under pressure for sure due to better treatments that are more expensive and a demographic shift.
We don’t have neither free nor cheap healthcare in our country. Noteworthy that dentistry is not included in the healthcare insurance and it’s ridiculously expensive. It’s not bad though. I’m from Czech republic 🇨🇿 🇪🇺
It’s shiete .. endless waiting times , hospitals are underfunded and understaffed. Pray for good health because there is a high chance you’re getting another illness on top of the one you have if you visit most of our public hospitals.
Actually healthcare is understaffed as doctors move to richer countries, such as the UK…
there is no such thinghs as free healthcare.
it’s paid by general income taxes.
in Italy it’s hit and miss.
and also it covers surgeries but not the most important part which is rehabilitation.
Increasingly understaffed and under pressure.
Overall it’s still better than private healthcare but I suspect it won’t remain so for long.
Latvia, I use both systems. Sometimes free, sometimes I go to private doctors. Had no problems with both. In free health care usual waiting time is 2 weeks. In private – 1-14 days, depends. Also my grandparents used free system a lot, no problems with that.
I am Polish and I was in a funny paradox.
Most people believe that public healthcare is overcrowded and thus slow and cheap. Which lead most people in my area to go private. Which made my experience with public healthcare great. Because people avoided the public healthcare like fire, I had basically no waiting lists and doctors used expensive stuff that they knew would otherwise go to waste. I had especially good experiences with public dentists.
But that’s like a local anomaly. Nationwide overcrowding is a real and primary concern.
EDIT: The second Polish issue is too many hospitals. Most our hospitals were built with the philosophy that a hospital should be reachable within half an hour to everyone. While it may sound nice, it has the consequence of splitting the resources very thinly. Often medical procedures require moving the equipment, staff, or the patient long distances between different hospitals because the closest one lacks the appropriate resources. Nurses should probably also be paid better and there should be more money going into hospital food. But overall, we’ve got pretty good refundation coverage, doctors and employers aren’t stingy with sick days, taking into account rehabilitation days and coverage. So while it could obviously be better with more funding, I’m glad that I don’t have to ever worry about medical debt and stuff.
I’m Hungarian and I wish our public healthcare had it as bad as NHS does.
Basically, our public healthcare should be great, but it’s been (wilfully) mismanaged to the point where now it’s in absolute shambles. There’s waiting lines to get appointments that might be literally months or years(!) away, healthcare workers are working for almost literal peanuts, doctors and nurses are quitting or moving abroad for a decent pay, hospitals are being closed… and those who don’t close keep stacking up insane amounts of debt that they’re unable to pay… Most GP’s are over 50 (mine is over 70) and burnt out to no end, don’t really care about anything anymore. Hospitals are literally falling apart, there’s no toilet paper (in most places you can’t even fucking close the doors on the toilet because they have no funds to fix a broken door), hospital food is at this point literally bread and water, maybe a slice of deli meat…
Just a personal example: last year I felt a weird hard bump inside my mouth. I tried the local public healthcare dentist – I had to wait for three days to be able to call them to get an appointment, and then the soonets appointment was for *two months later.* So I went to my private dentist the next day and fortunately it turned out to be just a harmless cyst, but if it had been something worse and I couldn’t afford private care… yeah.
Meanwhile, the private sector is getting more and more expensive (doesn’t help that our currency is getting more and more worthless).
NFZ healthcare is good, although anyone calling it “free” has never actually looked up government expenses. I prefer the name “state-funded” or even “tax-funded”.
Anyway, you go to NFZ either in an emergency, for a basic consultation or when you have a lot of time to spare. If you need some procedure that isn’t exactly an emergency but also can’t wait like a year, you should rather pay for it.
Pretty good in Belgium. Some things like therapy aren’t well covered unless you have supplementary insurance, but I’ve had very good experiences with regular treatments and the whole process of having a child was much better and cheaper than my home country.
1. It’s not free, a large chunk of my income gets forcibly deducted to pay for it.
2. It’s shit and i rarely ever use it. I have private insurance from work which is far superior (at least i don’t have to wait half a year or more to get to a specialist). Recently i needed a surgery (removing something that can potentially develop into cancer) – two years wait time. Fuck that, i paid out of my own pocket.
Literally the only thing it’s good for are serious accidents that would put me on operating table and i’m **way** **overpaying** for that. I would opt out without a second thought i could.
We spend £200 Billion annually on the NHS, and for that we get 13 hour waits for an ambulance and 10 hour waits in AE (both recent personal experiences).
The NHS as an idea is amazing – but in a practical sense its horrible.
Am in my early 50’s, and the NHS has never in my lifetime functioned to an acceptable standard, has always been a political battle ground, and just eats up sooooo much money. For eample, we spend £50 Billion annually on defence, and for that we have one of the strongest Navy’s and Airforces on the planet, and maintain a nuclear deterant. We spend £200 Billion annually on the NHS, and for that we get appauling standards of care. Some of the experiences wme and my family have had in the past decade are just shocking.
This will get downvoted by people in th UK because the NHS is a sacred cow here – but it isnt fit for purpose, and never has been in my lifetime.
Slovene here – what healthcare?
Im German and pretty happy about our healthcare, had two surgeries so far and only had to wait 1 1/2 week for one and 2 months for the other, everything went perfectly and the Hospital had to my surprise really good food and everyone was friendly, cant complain.
I think it’s healthy that people who want to pay for a better treatment can go to the private sector and free up space in the public
I live in Budapest now and it’s disgusting
All the gov money and taxes have gone to building and renovating 30+ football stadiums while people continue to die younger than average here with some of the highest preventable cancer rates in Europe , while patients are welcomed by apathetic staff, rotting floors, outdated machines and they absolutely have sucked at football since the 50s
Only go private here. Price is still good for private however
It’s okay if you have no serious problems, but if serious and need a surgery or something, I would say it’s good. In Finland.
in Russia you may need to wait a month or two for your visit to the doctor (or wait in live queue for a few hours), but if you need urgent care you’ll get it urgently and the quality (in my experience) is better than in private clinics I’ve been to
the only exception is mental healthcare which is just abysmal in Russia
also I heard that general quality of care can vary widely from city to city or even from district to district – maybe I’ve just been lucky, I wouldn’t really know
In Hungary you bring your own toilet paper to the hospital
So there’s that
Torn my quadriceps tendon at 10 a.m., had operation at 2 p.m.(mid November), 14 days rehabilitation in spa in January. All free of charge, covered by usual health insurance. Slovenia.
Urgent medicine works perfect.
Otherwise you can wait for scheduled operations up to 2 years in public healthcare.
In sweden, physical care is good, but long wait times for non emergencies. But mental healthcare is not that good, they lack funding and it’s to fractured so if you want a specialist I can take a few months if your unlucky, and that is in the city’s, in the countryside its worse
Swedish. The nurses are currently on strike because the hospitals are severely understaffed.
Free? Cheap? lol.
Challenges may abound but there is the perfect example out there of having no public healthcare to look back on lol
Pay more, accept foreign degrees
Its fucked when the majority of money in healthcare doesnt go to those doing the healthcare
When you get there it’s very good. However the coverage is very unequal. For example, when I refer a client with cataract to an eye clinic here in Stockholm, they are usually done and have a new lens or two within 3-4 months at the most. In the north of Sweden they would have to wait 2-3 YEARS, which is atrocious.
28 comments
Under pressure for sure due to better treatments that are more expensive and a demographic shift.
We don’t have neither free nor cheap healthcare in our country. Noteworthy that dentistry is not included in the healthcare insurance and it’s ridiculously expensive. It’s not bad though. I’m from Czech republic 🇨🇿 🇪🇺
It’s shiete .. endless waiting times , hospitals are underfunded and understaffed. Pray for good health because there is a high chance you’re getting another illness on top of the one you have if you visit most of our public hospitals.
Actually healthcare is understaffed as doctors move to richer countries, such as the UK…
there is no such thinghs as free healthcare.
it’s paid by general income taxes.
in Italy it’s hit and miss.
and also it covers surgeries but not the most important part which is rehabilitation.
Increasingly understaffed and under pressure.
Overall it’s still better than private healthcare but I suspect it won’t remain so for long.
Latvia, I use both systems. Sometimes free, sometimes I go to private doctors. Had no problems with both. In free health care usual waiting time is 2 weeks. In private – 1-14 days, depends. Also my grandparents used free system a lot, no problems with that.
I am Polish and I was in a funny paradox.
Most people believe that public healthcare is overcrowded and thus slow and cheap. Which lead most people in my area to go private. Which made my experience with public healthcare great. Because people avoided the public healthcare like fire, I had basically no waiting lists and doctors used expensive stuff that they knew would otherwise go to waste. I had especially good experiences with public dentists.
But that’s like a local anomaly. Nationwide overcrowding is a real and primary concern.
EDIT: The second Polish issue is too many hospitals. Most our hospitals were built with the philosophy that a hospital should be reachable within half an hour to everyone. While it may sound nice, it has the consequence of splitting the resources very thinly. Often medical procedures require moving the equipment, staff, or the patient long distances between different hospitals because the closest one lacks the appropriate resources. Nurses should probably also be paid better and there should be more money going into hospital food. But overall, we’ve got pretty good refundation coverage, doctors and employers aren’t stingy with sick days, taking into account rehabilitation days and coverage. So while it could obviously be better with more funding, I’m glad that I don’t have to ever worry about medical debt and stuff.
I’m Hungarian and I wish our public healthcare had it as bad as NHS does.
Basically, our public healthcare should be great, but it’s been (wilfully) mismanaged to the point where now it’s in absolute shambles. There’s waiting lines to get appointments that might be literally months or years(!) away, healthcare workers are working for almost literal peanuts, doctors and nurses are quitting or moving abroad for a decent pay, hospitals are being closed… and those who don’t close keep stacking up insane amounts of debt that they’re unable to pay… Most GP’s are over 50 (mine is over 70) and burnt out to no end, don’t really care about anything anymore. Hospitals are literally falling apart, there’s no toilet paper (in most places you can’t even fucking close the doors on the toilet because they have no funds to fix a broken door), hospital food is at this point literally bread and water, maybe a slice of deli meat…
Just a personal example: last year I felt a weird hard bump inside my mouth. I tried the local public healthcare dentist – I had to wait for three days to be able to call them to get an appointment, and then the soonets appointment was for *two months later.* So I went to my private dentist the next day and fortunately it turned out to be just a harmless cyst, but if it had been something worse and I couldn’t afford private care… yeah.
Meanwhile, the private sector is getting more and more expensive (doesn’t help that our currency is getting more and more worthless).
NFZ healthcare is good, although anyone calling it “free” has never actually looked up government expenses. I prefer the name “state-funded” or even “tax-funded”.
Anyway, you go to NFZ either in an emergency, for a basic consultation or when you have a lot of time to spare. If you need some procedure that isn’t exactly an emergency but also can’t wait like a year, you should rather pay for it.
Pretty good in Belgium. Some things like therapy aren’t well covered unless you have supplementary insurance, but I’ve had very good experiences with regular treatments and the whole process of having a child was much better and cheaper than my home country.
1. It’s not free, a large chunk of my income gets forcibly deducted to pay for it.
2. It’s shit and i rarely ever use it. I have private insurance from work which is far superior (at least i don’t have to wait half a year or more to get to a specialist). Recently i needed a surgery (removing something that can potentially develop into cancer) – two years wait time. Fuck that, i paid out of my own pocket.
Literally the only thing it’s good for are serious accidents that would put me on operating table and i’m **way** **overpaying** for that. I would opt out without a second thought i could.
We spend £200 Billion annually on the NHS, and for that we get 13 hour waits for an ambulance and 10 hour waits in AE (both recent personal experiences).
The NHS as an idea is amazing – but in a practical sense its horrible.
Am in my early 50’s, and the NHS has never in my lifetime functioned to an acceptable standard, has always been a political battle ground, and just eats up sooooo much money. For eample, we spend £50 Billion annually on defence, and for that we have one of the strongest Navy’s and Airforces on the planet, and maintain a nuclear deterant. We spend £200 Billion annually on the NHS, and for that we get appauling standards of care. Some of the experiences wme and my family have had in the past decade are just shocking.
This will get downvoted by people in th UK because the NHS is a sacred cow here – but it isnt fit for purpose, and never has been in my lifetime.
Slovene here – what healthcare?
Im German and pretty happy about our healthcare, had two surgeries so far and only had to wait 1 1/2 week for one and 2 months for the other, everything went perfectly and the Hospital had to my surprise really good food and everyone was friendly, cant complain.
I think it’s healthy that people who want to pay for a better treatment can go to the private sector and free up space in the public
I live in Budapest now and it’s disgusting
All the gov money and taxes have gone to building and renovating 30+ football stadiums while people continue to die younger than average here with some of the highest preventable cancer rates in Europe , while patients are welcomed by apathetic staff, rotting floors, outdated machines and they absolutely have sucked at football since the 50s
Only go private here. Price is still good for private however
It’s okay if you have no serious problems, but if serious and need a surgery or something, I would say it’s good. In Finland.
in Russia you may need to wait a month or two for your visit to the doctor (or wait in live queue for a few hours), but if you need urgent care you’ll get it urgently and the quality (in my experience) is better than in private clinics I’ve been to
the only exception is mental healthcare which is just abysmal in Russia
also I heard that general quality of care can vary widely from city to city or even from district to district – maybe I’ve just been lucky, I wouldn’t really know
In Hungary you bring your own toilet paper to the hospital
So there’s that
Torn my quadriceps tendon at 10 a.m., had operation at 2 p.m.(mid November), 14 days rehabilitation in spa in January. All free of charge, covered by usual health insurance. Slovenia.
Urgent medicine works perfect.
Otherwise you can wait for scheduled operations up to 2 years in public healthcare.
In sweden, physical care is good, but long wait times for non emergencies. But mental healthcare is not that good, they lack funding and it’s to fractured so if you want a specialist I can take a few months if your unlucky, and that is in the city’s, in the countryside its worse
Swedish. The nurses are currently on strike because the hospitals are severely understaffed.
Free? Cheap? lol.
Challenges may abound but there is the perfect example out there of having no public healthcare to look back on lol
Pay more, accept foreign degrees
Its fucked when the majority of money in healthcare doesnt go to those doing the healthcare
When you get there it’s very good. However the coverage is very unequal. For example, when I refer a client with cataract to an eye clinic here in Stockholm, they are usually done and have a new lens or two within 3-4 months at the most. In the north of Sweden they would have to wait 2-3 YEARS, which is atrocious.
There is no such thing as a free healthcare