Move to Vancouver, Calgary, Hamilton or Toronto.
Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?
21–30 of 114 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?
#22My Dad had something similar to what you want done at Mayo clinic. It was more of a pre-emptive high tech complete check up that took several days. He got MRI's, stress tests, etc. They received and discussed results throughout the process.
My wife just went through a serious spine/back problem. Our experience was that the turnaround between visits is so slow because the specialists are in such high demand. She is in recovery now but the time from first onset of symptoms to recovery was six months.
My suggestion is find a good doctor that specializes in managing pain to make the waiting more bearable. In my mind, a pain doctor was someone who hands out opioids and gets people addicted to drugs. Nothing could be farther from the truth. There are tons of effective treatments for pain that don't involve opioids. These range from cortisone shots to drugs that target specific nerves.
Re: Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?
#23Direct Primary Care might be a good place to start: https://www.dpcare.org/ I gave it a try last fall, and the difference is night and day: my current Dr actually works for me, whereas the last one very obviously worked for my insurance company. Rereading your post, this is exactly what you want. He had me do a whole bunch of tests right off the bat and set about optimizing different things. His job is to keep my bod…
This is awesome! The questions is why is zero advertising for this kind of service?
Looking at the website I've found two providers near me, so I'm definitely going to check it out.
Re: Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?
#24consider moving to Europe where there are multiple countries with excellent free healthcare systems
german, currently living in the US here: the scenario OP describes would unfortunately be the same in germany. The healthcare is good, but slow. And any non-obvious diagnosis can take a while / several specialists to figure out.
Dunno if the private health care would be any better (wait time aside), but if anything I'm surprised you can't just throw money at the problem while in the US. Did something similar to what you described twice recently and for each condition it took less than 2-3 weeks between GP, specialist and results.
Re: Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?
#25Look into medical tourism if that's an option for you. Country like India is a great choice for the money. They have excellent hospitals and doctors for a fraction of the cost of US healthcare. I say this as an Indian American who has lived in the US for half of my life. Don't be fooled by "Oh India is 3rd world". Not when it comes to Healthcare (if you have some money which will always be much less than what you nee…
I definitely miss this aspect of India, affordable and easily accessible healthcare and if you can afford a premium then it will be world class as well.
Re: Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?
#26I suppose it depends on your general health, medical history and what actually happened to you. Did you have an accident or is it just wear and tear, have you looked after yourself. You don't provide much information so it's hard to know if you're an athlete or are 200lbs overweight. Back and neck problems can be resolved in all kinds of way or may never be resolved. If it was me (and I do have a few issues), I'd move as much as possible, stay healthy, avoid pain medication, do yoga or pilates, use hot and cold and see a good physio and massage guy.
Re: Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?
#27Look into medical tourism if that's an option for you. Country like India is a great choice for the money. They have excellent hospitals and doctors for a fraction of the cost of US healthcare. I say this as an Indian American who has lived in the US for half of my life. Don't be fooled by "Oh India is 3rd world". Not when it comes to Healthcare (if you have some money which will always be much less than what you nee…
Be aware that if you travel to India, you will almost certainly need to bribe people during the travel process. It's something westerners tend to be really uncomfortable with and usually stresses them out.
Can you elaborate? I get that there is huge transactional corruption but you probably should almost never have to deal with cops/government officials there.
Re: Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?
#28The term you're looking for is "concierge healthcare". Check r/fatfire for recommendations - the abysmal state of US healthcare is a frequent topic of discussion.
This. Also look at One Medical. It's "concierge light".
Re: Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?
#29My Dad had something similar to what you want done at Mayo clinic. It was more of a pre-emptive high tech complete check up that took several days. He got MRI's, stress tests, etc. They received and discussed results throughout the process. My wife just went through a serious spine/back problem. Our experience was that the turnaround between visits is so slow because the specialists are in such high demand. She is in…
Thank you!