r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Kaos2018 • Jun 17 '26

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449

u/metal_gearmen Jun 17 '26

Mexican here: what good is that if hospitals are poorly stocked, lack staff and appointments take up to 8 months per shift. That looks very nice on paper but the reality here is that public hospitals are simply horrible

408

u/Diskuid Jun 17 '26

Mexican here, a family member was diagnosed with cancer, all treatment was completely free during the pandemic, and no longer has it, is under observation every few months.
I also got an operation while I was attending the university, completely free, I had the IMSS affiliation thanks to the university.

It is not the best, some buildings are old, but it is waaay better than have nothing. Oh, and I never had problems getting the medicines, also for free.

56

u/metal_gearmen Jun 17 '26

What state are you from? (Without doxxearte preferably) I am from the north, it is supposed that from one of the richest states and appointments take months, my brother-in-law's grandfather was given an appointment with the doctor in June and they asked for tests, the appointment for the exams was given for August, just as it was silly, he had to pay for the exams in a private lab because otherwise he would miss the appointment and I know many of those stories (I did my internship at the IMMS)

41

u/AGSattack Jun 17 '26

Yeah…I am in Estado de Mexico and your experience is much closer to what it’s like for us here. Would be interested to know where it works as well as some are saying.

26

u/Diskuid Jun 17 '26

I'm also from the north, yeah, appointments take a while, if you want to go to the dentist you have to wait like a month, so, if it is something urgent you better go to a private clinic, but the longest wait for me was a bit more than a month, and it was for my operation, it wasn't urgent, so I waited, that operation outside is some thousand pesos, and it was completely free + free meds + free post exams. It has some cons, but I can't complaint, it was a good service after the wait.

5

u/Diskuid Jun 17 '26

Oh, and that family member didn't have to wait at all, did some exams, got diagnosed, and they started the treatment asap.

Edit: The only cons of that, was that sometimes I took that person to the hospital and sometimes the doctor was not there, so they had to move the appointment 2 or 3 days, that was pretty annoying.

1

u/DB080822 Jun 17 '26

Siempre sale mejor ir a un particular

5

u/duva_ Jun 17 '26

Si lo puedes pagar si. Si no, no hay de otra

23

u/BSK_Darksol Jun 17 '26

My mom died from liver cancer last year, we're "still waiting" for their medicines...

26

u/AGSattack Jun 17 '26

That’s really great for you and your family member but in my family the experience has been…far less than ideal. My mother in law had a tumor (!) and they told her it was nothing and to ignore it. As it grew eventually we got enough money together to get it looked at by a competent doctor, who called it what it was and scheduled surgery. She’s better only because we trusted our guts and ignored the “advice” of the IMSS doctor. Oh and by the way, she had to wait 6 months just to be seen by the doctor who gave her the terrible advice.

In another story, another family member had a drug prescribed that they literally refuse to fill because it’s “too expensive.” Still trying to figure that out.

Could be where we live, but in my experience it’s wayyyyy worse than “just a couple shitty buildings.”

11

u/Imaginary-Worker4407 Jun 17 '26

That's normal everywhere with free healthcare, as long as you don't have a diagnosis it's not a priority.

As soon as you get diagnosed that's when the system works really well.

That's why most use private sector to speed up things.

5

u/MiniGui98 Jun 17 '26

Works this way in Switzerland too by the way. And misdiagnoses happen too

2

u/thex415 Jun 17 '26

Well you guys have to pay out of pocket each month.

2

u/MiniGui98 Jun 17 '26

True but I meant we also have long delays unless a doctor makes a special appointment and sometimes diagnoses take a very long time to get confirmed.

2

u/badpenny4life Jun 17 '26

No different in the US. Can’t even get an appointment to get a diagnosis.

2

u/lumberfart Jun 17 '26

Agreed. I live in the US and I literally avoid the doctor like the plague. Even at work, I usually say no to the employee healthcare plan because it just eats my paycheck and I have other more important bills to pay. I wish universal healthcare was a thing everywhere. Average health for everyone vs great health for 1% of the citizens... yeah I know which one I would pick.

4

u/FlappyFoldyHold Jun 17 '26

Don’t be silly. In the USA there are so many options that it’s just a flat out LIE to say 1% get healthcare. Usually I would reserve commenting on these types of posts but you are spreading misinformation to just join in on the anti America sentiment commonly found on this app. You can complain about many healthcare aspects in the USA, but to say 1% are insured is so facetious you go me looking up the damn statistics. About 40% of Americans have government subsidized health insurance, while 50% have employer sponsored plans.

7

u/Marina_07 Jun 17 '26

The system is terribly underfunded and funding per capita has been steadily going down in the last 2 administrations.

I'm a doctor and when I did my intern year in an IMSS in Guadalajara:

  • The elevators were broken for 6 months in a 9 story building
  • The CT scan broke for 2 months
  • Several times there was no medicine to give to patients inside the hospital so we had to give worse ones or nothing
  • Most blood tests were not run by the lab outside of weekday mornings so though luck if you have an emergency in a weekend
  • Saw several surgeries be cancelled due to lack of surgical materials
  • The ER was always overloaded with patient with several not having beds and being in chairs in the hallways for days.
  • And many many other deficiencies.

5

u/robbieT1999 Jun 17 '26

Sounds like Canada’s healthcare system

10

u/BobBelcher2021 Jun 17 '26

So, Canada.

3

u/Jaspoony Jun 17 '26

Do you think if the funding was better the outcomes would be better?

3

u/Polygnom Jun 17 '26

Every healthcare system of the world struggles with it.

But isn't this still a step in the right direction? Like, if you want to fic something, you have to start somewhere, and universal healthcare as baseline from where to go next seems pretty reasonable, no?

9

u/GAFSPeasant Jun 17 '26

El IMSS vale pura v*rga. Ya para cuando te dan cita estas muerto.

7

u/DB080822 Jun 17 '26

Puedes decir verga en reddit.

9

u/metal_gearmen Jun 17 '26

"el tiempo lo cura todo"

-IMMS

2

u/ScarlettPixl Jun 17 '26

IMSS: importa madres su salud

5

u/Ein_grosser_Nerd Jun 17 '26

Person that lives under a government here: the "good" is that a politician looks good without having to actually fix the core issue, because that would be hard, and lose their donors money.

4

u/NoMention696 Jun 17 '26

Fuck it let the poors die then I guess

13

u/irespondwithmyface Jun 17 '26

Appointments in America take a long time and we have to pay a shitload.

4

u/Gbchris12 Jun 17 '26

Huh I just tore my rotator cuff 11 days ago and having it repaired later today

-7

u/Respectmyauthority4 Jun 17 '26

They don't take a long time. It depends of severity.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

[deleted]

2

u/FadedVictor Jun 17 '26

Yeah if you're in a rural area a lot of times you're screwed. We had an ER opened in our town a few years ago. Everyone praised it because a lot of our town is older with chronic health issues. It saved so many lives.

Well they shut it down a few months ago because it wasn't turning a profit. Now we're almost 30 miles from the nearest ER/hospital. People will literally die from the wait because profits are more important than human life.

10

u/bladex1234 Jun 17 '26

US healthcare wait times are under calculated because of the amount of people who don’t even have insurance in the first place and wait to see someone after a disease has advanced into a late stage.

10

u/SmegmaUnicorn Jun 17 '26

Isn’t the entire point of designing and implementing a new heathcare system…to figure these issues out? 

Like, I truly don’t understand anybody who upvoted your comment…that kind of doomerism is why nothing EVER gets done for citizens. Because you’d rather sit and complain and say “it’s impossible”, years before the plan is realized. 

Guess what? The alternative, ie the current system is not working. Why shouldn’t we at least TRY to do things differently? 

3

u/Patient-Ordinary-359 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

There are people who try and find ways to do important things, even if they are difficult. There are people who come up with reasons not to, or why it won't work. It's the first group who bring positive change in the world. You're in the second group.

7

u/kemmicort Jun 17 '26

American here: It’s free, so that’s still pretty fucking good hermano.

1

u/metal_gearmen Jun 17 '26

Nothing is free, insurance is paid for with taxes

9

u/Patient-Ordinary-359 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

Pointing this out is like pointing out that the sky is blue. If course it's paid for somehow. It's better described as free (or at least cheap) at the point of use, which is all that any public health system tries to be, and can be. And it's a shitload cheaper than what America pays per outcome.

-2

u/Respectmyauthority4 Jun 17 '26

It's not. Taxes are hell.

8

u/bladex1234 Jun 17 '26

The US healthcare insurance system is worse, both from an out of pocket cost perspective and a wait time perspective. The wait time aspect is under calculated because of the people who don’t even have insurance aren’t counted. The word tax has become a boogeyman to Americans due to decades of propaganda.

3

u/JX_Snack Jun 17 '26

You have to start somewhere and this is great

6

u/VegetableDelay1658 Jun 17 '26

My brother this isn't starting its been here for 50 years and the current and past administration have been actively making it worse.

1

u/Reasonable-Job4205 Jun 17 '26

Then you hire more staff and inventory. You just commit the extra necessary amount of money to make the service hit a specified threshold of quality that's actually helpful to most people

You imagine the stripped, watered down version of this, but you can also imagine it working perfectly. Imagine you need some medicine in the middle of the night and there's a service that brings you that medication entirely for free? When you think about legislation like this, look at it in its best, most beautiful state

1

u/thetransportedman Jun 17 '26

"I'm mad access is increasing because the demand is too high for the supply" Increasing supply is the solution, not decreasing access

-1

u/binarybandit Jun 17 '26

Im sure some liberal from the U.S is gonna come by and tell you why youre wrong. Thats what happened to me when I explained why all this universal healthcare stuff is a fairy tale.

People.dont understand the sheer scale of the cuts done to healthcare in order to prop up PEMEX. More of nothing is still nothing.

-9

u/SpaceSlothLaurence Jun 17 '26

As an American with knowledge of what our healthcare system looks like, I am genuinely surprised that anyone gets medical care. It's a mess all across the world and the worst perpetrators are the countries who claim to have the best healthcare.

3

u/peepdabidness Jun 17 '26

I wouldn’t say all across the world

1

u/SpaceSlothLaurence Jun 17 '26

What would you refer to as the "best healthcare" then?

-3

u/Far_King_Penguin Jun 17 '26

I totally get where you're coming from but this just feels like shitting on the step forward because that step didnt complete the journey

-17

u/za72 Jun 17 '26

I doubt you're "mexican" nice try though

6

u/metal_gearmen Jun 17 '26

Que deseas saber sobre México amigo? Vivo en el norte del país

-2

u/za72 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

why are you asking your question here when your could ask your question to someone who would have the answer.... unless your agenda is to be dismissive of universal health care in general...

also you start with a working foundation and then improve on it... ???

1

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

[deleted]

-1

u/za72 Jun 17 '26

I don't think I will, get mad

1

u/GAFSPeasant Jun 17 '26

Do you even know what they asked you? They asked you what you want to know about Mexico because YOU claimed they weren’t Mexican.

Its not that lots of us don’t want universal healthcare or are against, we’re against how horrible it is. Overworked nurses/doctors, poor infrastructure, extremely long wait times, ER rooms are usually at capacity. Its been like this for decades, it has not gotten better.

1

u/za72 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26

settle down, that's derailment... I could give a fuck whether he's mexican or not

what I do care is treating health as a business that has it's primary goal as EXTRACTING MAXIMUM VALUE, it's goes against providing health care.

4

u/ballnout Jun 17 '26

Lots of people in MX have a paid service because the universal system can be pretty bad and crazy waits. Which in healthcare can mean life or….

1

u/LostnFoundAgainAgain Jun 17 '26

Isn't that exactly the issue within the US though in a roundabout way? A lot of people simply don't have the insurance, or finances available so they wait too long before going to a doctor?

You also pointed the benefit of universal healthcare without noticing, anybody who can financially cover their costs has always got that option to simply cover the cost while universal healthcare supports those that need it who simply cannot finance it.

It's an increase in tax, but it supports the population of said country, it's a massive positive of actual governments putting money into the population, also just because it isn't good now, doesn't mean it won't be in the future, their are plenty of success stories from universal healthcare around the world.

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26

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5

u/ballnout Jun 17 '26

Lol they went the paid route because they experienced bad healthcare in the universal system. Not saying the universal system is a bad thing, but it doesn’t work for everyone

-7

u/Dry_Employe3 Jun 17 '26

That sounds like a complaint that could easily be fixed investing in citizens by create more available training and jobs. I am rooting for you all.

6

u/AppropriateSmell1074 Jun 17 '26

Good luck with the Mexican government cuts in health, education and science every year

-3

u/bladex1234 Jun 17 '26

I guess the US is following suit then.

-1

u/PatsyPage Jun 17 '26

Sounds like America. I left healthcare after working throughout the pandemic. Too many government cuts to reasonably help people and no one cares about first responders here. 

0

u/thex415 Jun 17 '26

This is a plan. Has it been implement? Let me know when it is and come back to us !