A couple of threads recently have taken a tangent towards discussions about health care, particularly about health care provided by the government. One of the cool things about mobileread is that we have so many people from so many nations represented.
So I'd like to ask -
What are people's personal experiences with health care in various countries? I'd like to step aside from the political/moral debate about whether governments should be in the business of providing health care (although this is Mobileread, I'm sure we'll have some of that
), I'm more interested in the reality of living under different health care systems. What kind of waits are there, for different kinds of care? What kinds of procedures are taken care of, or not? Who makes the decision about what is necessary - i.e., are doctors ever in the position of wanting to provide a certain kind of care but they can't because it will not be covered? How proactive are doctors about different kinds of testing (MRIs are expensive for example, so a doctor might try to avoid one unless they have very concrete indications that one is needed. Or they might prescribe one just to rule out possibilities)?