Thread by @dhh

Following this doctors appointment, I needed an X-ray. Again, referral was in the system. Open choice of 6 facilities to get it done. Booked next-day appointment. In’and’out in 14 fucking minutes. No paperwork, no copay, just healthcare.

https://twitter.com/dhh/status/1324000909886545920

This isn’t a perfect system. But it is so fucking superior to what passes for a healthcare system in the US that it is blowing my mind. AND I LIVED HERE FOR THE FIRST 25 YEARS OF MY LIFE. You don’t truly appreciate how rotten the US system is until you try a working alternative.

And this is me, Rich Person With The Best Cadillac Plan + Concierge Service, doing the contrast with simply the standard level of care available to every permanent resident of Denmark. Contrast to anything approximate to average to average and it’s truly abysmal.

But you can literally see the efficiencies. It’s plain as day how a country like Denmark can get away with spending half as much on healthcare than the US (~9% v 18% of GDP), yet deliver extremely superior outcomes on a national basis, AND still simply be pleasant to use.

The American healthcare bureaucracy is the capitalist reality of what Americans fear socialism would be like.

“I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free [to go bankrupt if I get sick/having to choose between medicine and food/navigate a insurance bureaucracy even Kafka would fear]”

Oh, and that X-ray? Just got the results AN HOUR AND A HALF AFTER THE TEST. Digitally delivered via my doctor in the national health app. I feel like I’m living in some wild healthcare future here compared to the 17th century barbarism that passes for American ambition.

Imagine if another country had a military that was this superior in efficacy and efficiency compared to the US?! It would be an instant national crisis. All funds directed to fix. No expenses spared. But curing people is just so boring compared to killing people.