So I had to make a visit to emergency department here in Melbourne area and below is a comparison of my experience in USA ( Cali) vs Aus ( Vic).
Background :
a) I had a very middle of the range insurance back in california ( keiser permanante)
b) This visit was made over the weekend in evening , at which time , most of the regular hospitals/primary physicians clinics are closed. This ( in my understanding) diverts much more traffic towards the ED of 24/7 hospitals.
c) This visit was made to a public hospital - open to all residents/citizens (medicare card holders).
d) It turns out all that had to be done was the doctor to give a close look at the issue (for the little one) and monitor for next 24 hour.
e) a lot of folks had just walked into ED and needed to be screened at the counter to ascertain whether they need to see doc in ED. This takes a bit of time to understand and consult the patients on the go.
Some more background:
Back in California , it used to cost about 25$ per visit at Kaiser but it also required to pay a monthly premium , which is discounted by employer health care insurance plan.
Here in Aus , taxes are higher and universal health care is available to all resident/citizens.
Keep in mind if you don't have insurance in USA you ( on average) would be paying more than an average month's rent ( source 1).
Concern:
My biggest concern was ( as heard in USA) would be that I would be waiting for hours in a sub par hospital.
Comparison:
1.When I arrived at the ED there were about 10 people ahead of me in the line and it took about 40-50 minutes to get to talk to the RN.
Kaiser would also make me wait ( same issue) for 1/2 hour easy.
Once I got to the front of the row , RN spent due time to understand the issue and promptly routed me to the correct doctor.
Kind of same at Kaiser as well.
Another 15 minutes inside the waiting room and got to see the doctor , almost the same at Kaiser.
Doc did the examination and answered questions to our satisfaction.
Doctor/environment did seem bit more calm when compared with Kaiser.
Bit of shock : Doc mentioned that trainee doctors perform surgery at the public hospital , of-course with oversight with the senior doc.
That doesn't happen at Kaiser.
On to the FEEs:
They issued me a bill of grand total of ZERO Dollars at the public hospital . The parking machine actually charged me 18$ , which is avoidable in future.
Conclusion:
In my very limited experience , Universal healthcare provides service at par with the middle of range ( Kaiser-esque) level of care.That provides me the peace of mind that I have access to at-least the employer provided coverage ( USA Kaiser) and if I choose to , I can go for private Insurance for shorter lines and specialized care.
